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Helium Level Monitoring Database

Introduction

The Helium Management (HM) project is concerned with developing software and hardware for the management of helium for research facilities. The project was started by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) and is now a collaboration of the HZB, the Institut Laue Langevin (ILL), the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source and the European Spallation Source (ESS) under the umbrella of the International Society for Sample Environment (ISSE).

Helium is becoming increasingly rare and expensive. Therefore, smart management is needed in order to minimise losses, track expenses, and localise and fix leaks.

The HM software and hardware developed at the HZB allow for the tracking of all inputs and outputs of the helium supply system, helium usage at individual experiments, helium levels in all types of vessels or cryostats, and the flow of helium gas in recovery lines. Moreover, it allows for detecting overpressure in vessels and detecting warm/forgotten vessels.

The data is collected by various independent measurement devices and programs and fed into the Gas Management database (GAM database). For a complete HM system the following parts are needed:

• The GAM database is the backbone of the HM. The database stores the information to all of the measurements taken from devices, as well as information about every device, their model, type and display properties. It was developed by the HZB and currently runs on Oracle and MySQL.
• A balance is needed to book-in the helium vessels when they arrive to the facility (normally full) and to book-out the vessels when they leave the facility. The events of booking -in and -out have to be written to the GAM database for example by a software directly controlling the balance.
• A book-in/out software is also needed to monitor the gas inputs to the system (gas cylinders/bundles) and in most cases to monitor the the bundles for compressed (warm) helium sent to the liquefaction plant.
• All wireless devices such as level meters and gas counter monitors are connected to the network of base stations (coordinator network) based on XBee modules (IEEE 802.15.4 protocol). As the wireless level meters are mobile, the coordinator network is used to locate them in the facility.
• All data traffic in the coordinator network is organized and collected by the Helium Management Program (HMP) developed by HZB. In addition, the HMP offers a set of tools for interacting with the GAM database such as creating objects or object types (see below), changing parameters, creating or ending object relations (see below) or updating the GAM database.
• The data of the fixed installation which is individual to a facility, such as the contamination of the helium gas, filling levels of helium bladders, the pressures in the helium gas storage tanks or the respective temperatures, has to be collected by software individual to each facility and then written to the GAM database.

The following document gives a complete introduction to the GAM database, its structure and functionality.