SRMES - AN EXPERT-SYSTEM FOR PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF SMALL REFRIGERATING MACHINES

SRMES is a rule-based expert system designed for use in the refrigeration industry as an aid in diagnosing the most frequent malfunctions in small refrigerating machines of either the air- or water-cooled condenser type. Suitably expanded, it may cover other more complex types of refrigerating machine. The system could also be suitable for education and training. In the version described here, SRMES is intended to demonstrate that the use of expert system tools in the refrigeration industry may lead to higher efficiency and better performance. Although the version described in the paper has been optimized for off-line performance, its extension to on-line application may be justified by relevant experience gained through its practical operation. Particular attention is devoted in the paper to the development of the decision tree. It is shown that with computer hardware of limited capacity knowledge-based rules can be used to reach specific diagnoses of the performance of small refrigerating machines.