Using a drinking water treatment simulator for operator training

Accelerating the simulated process leads to an increase in learning

Master thesis (2009)

Authors

Contributors

J.C.F. De Winter (mentor)
P.A. Wieringa (mentor)
Department
BioMechanical Engineering (Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering) (TU Delft)
Copyright: © 2009 Van der Wees, M.
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Published Date

27-10-2009

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Faculty

Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering

Department

BioMechanical Engineering

Abstract

The drinking water treatment industry is becoming increasingly centralized and automated. This requires a different operator training approach then the traditional on the job training. To address this requirement a drinking water treatment plant simulator was developed. A major advantage of such a simulator might be that the normally very slow process can be accelerated, giving an increase in feedback to the trainees. In this paper the effectiveness of training on an accelerated simulated process is investigated. Four groups of subjects were trained on the Waterspot Simulator, three groups (of various experience) trained at 60x accelerated simulation speed, and one group trained at real-time simulation speed. The results showed that the Waterspot Simulator could distinguish between experienced operators and laymen and that the groups that trained with 60x accelerated simulation speed outperformed the group that trained at real-time, when they were compared ona real-time quasi transfer of training task.