Failure Detection and Location in Process Control - Integrating a New Model based Technique with Other Methods

The failure detection and location method (FDLM) is discussed. The key idea is to utilize the causal description of the system's power flows. This description is used to detect and locate system failures without modeling the possible system failure modes. The FDLM specifies those system and model outputs the comparison of which maximize the possibilities of detecting existing system failures. An example of an FDLM application in a simulated fossil fuel power plant demonstrates that the method is applicable to systems which are modeled by bilateral as well as unilateral and multilateral energy bonds. An integration of the FDLM with other available failure detection methods seems to result in an effective and promising failure detection scheme.