Root cause analysis of actuator fault based on invertibility of interconnected system

This paper addresses the problem of root cause analysis (RCA) of actuator fault. By considering an actuator as an individual dynamic subsystem connected with process dynamic subsystem in cascade, an interconnected system is then constituted. The fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) algorithm is carried out in actuator subsystem and aims at identifying the root causes of actuator faults. According to real plant, outputs of the actuator subsystem are assumed inaccessible and are reconstructed by measurements of the global system, thus providing a means of monitoring and diagnosis of the plant at both local and global level. A condition of invertibility of the interconnected system is first developed to guarantee that faults occurring in the actuator subsystem will affect the measured output of the global system distinguishably. For that, a necessary and sufficient condition is proposed to ensure invertibility of the interconnected system. Effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated on an intensified HEX reactor. Copyright © 2017 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.