Early Detection of Thermocouple Sheath Failure in Corrosive Environments using Empirical Mode Decomposition

Early detection of faults in thermocouple sensors is crucial for minimizing system downtime, particularly in temperature-dependent applications. However, extracting meaningful features from faulty signals and correct inferences is challenging in early fault detection. The Empirical Mode Decomposition method is proposed in this paper, specifically tailored to detect sheath fracture failure in thermocouples exposed to acidic media, where the failure rate is often unacceptably high. Our proposed method leverages statistical features extracted from Intrinsic Mode Functions, providing valuable insights into the early fault detection of the thermocouple sensor. Experimental results using thermocouple data showcase the effectiveness of our approach in improving the reliability of early fault detection in practical applications.