virtual mockup? In order to determine the best step-by-step installation sequence for piping assemblies, valves, and other equipment in a nuclear power plant room, engineers are going virtual.

virtual mockup article

That is because the engineers at virtual mockup developed software that offers a virtual mockup. It gives the feeling that you're actually in the room when you're just standing in a space bounded by five large screens that surround you with a projected image. The virtual mock-up experience is real enough to enable welders, for example, to crawl under virtual structures and hit their heads on virtual pipes to determine if there's enough room to work, the researchers said. Early results from experiments involving construction management students and experienced construction superintendents said the virtual room should cut construction costs, enabling more efficient scheduling.

The room modeled by the Penn State virtual mock-up is room 12306 of the yet-to-be-built Westinghouse AP1000 commercial nuclear power plant. The room exists only in Cyberspace but could someday be located in a nuclear power plant auxiliary building and contain piping, valves, and other equipment from 10 different fluid Systems. Experiments conducted synthetic Environment Applications Laboratory show that experienced construction superintendents were able to develop shorter construction schedules using the virtual room versus schedules developed using only three-dimensional computer-aided design (CAD) drawings.

The construction sequence developed using the interactive method offered by the virtual room lasted thirty-five days. The sequences developed using the CAD drawings were forty-eight days and fifty-three days. The interactive-sequence development method saved between 27% and 33% in this
test case of virtual mockup.