Reuse of models in the lifecycle of production plants using HiL simulation models for diagnosis

The design and development process of industrial plants is highly supported by various models in the meantime. These models emulate the behavior of the plant by simulations before the plant is built in reality. Though models and simulations provide a lot of advantages, they involve also a downside: Modeling is mostly very expensive in time and costs. To enhance the cost-value ratio, either the modeling efforts are to be reduced or the benefits of the models are to be increased. Nowadays, the use of models for enabling a controller test is common as a measure to increase the benefits. In this paper, an approach for increasing the benefits by reusing Hardware-in-the-Loop (HiL) simulation models is presented. Exemplarily, HiL simulation models can be applied for realizing diagnostic methods enabling detection of plant malfunction during the operation phase. Another example is the use of these models for controller optimization during the operation phase in order to increase the performance of plants.