Research on Modeling in Operator Mental Workload Based on VACP Method

Faced with the higher automation and complex systematic component environment of NPPs, ensuring main control room operators’ reliability for the unclear safety had become a more and more important issue than before. As a basic dimension of physiological indicator, human mental workload is widely used in evaluating human performance and reliability. In this paper, the VACP method is applied to analyze the operator mental workload in LOCA with full power operating. Firstly, the operator task model is constructed. Secondly, on the basis of the VACP, the operators’ mental workload is determined. Lastly, based on importance analysis, the feature of those actions with different adjustment parameters β (1, 10 and 50) were identified. The result shows that the ‘Visual locating’ is the most important among those actions. The research had the application of dynamically evaluating human reliability come true, which can also provide an important basis for preventing human errors in NPP. It can also provide a reference for assessing operator reliability in other safety-critical domains.