Fault Detection and Diagnosis

in Engineering Systems
Basic concepts with simple examples

Janos Gertler
George Mason University
Fairfax, Virginia

Outline
What is a fault
What is diagnosis
Diagnostic approaches

Model - free methods

Principal component approach
Model - based methods
Systems identification

Application example: car engine diagnosis

What is a fault
Fault: malfunction of a system component
- sensor fault
- actuator fault
- plant fault

- bias
- parameter change
- leak, etc.

Symptom: an observable effect of a fault

Noise and disturbance: nuissances that may
affect the symptoms

What is a fault
actuator command

actuator
fault

leak

sensor faults

sensor readings

Sensor fault: reading is different from true value

Actuator fault: valve position is different from command
Plant fault: leak

What is fault diagnosis

Fault detection: indicating if there is a fault
Fault isolation: determining where the fault is
Detection + Isolation = Diagnosis
Fault identification:
Determining the size of the fault
Determining the time of onset of the fault

Model-free methods
Fault-tree analysis
- cause-effect trees analysed backwards

Spectrum analysis
- fault-specific frequencies in sound, vibration, etc

Limit checking
- checking measurements against preset limits

Limit checking
flow
l1

l2

l3

s1

s2
y1

S1 fault
Leak3
Leak2
Leak1
High/low flow

s3
y2

y3

y1

y2

y3

off
normal
normal
off
off

normal
normal
off
off
off

normal
off
off
off
off

Limit checking
Easy to implement
Requires no design
BUT
To accommodate normal variations, must have
limited fault sensitivity
Has limited fault specificity (symptom explosion)

Principal Component Approach

Modeling phase: based on normal data
- determine the subspace where normal data exists
(representation space, RepS)
- determine the spread (variances) of data in the RepS

Monotoring phase: compare observations to

representation space
- if outside RepS, there are faults
- if inside RepS but outside thresholds, abnormal
operating conditions

Principal Component Approach

u

y1 = u

flow

y2 = u
y2

y1
y2

Representation space
Fault
Normal spread
y1
u

Principal component modeling

Centered normalised measurements x(t) = [x1(t) xn(t)]
Data matrix:
Covariance matrix:

X = [ x(1)

x(2)

x(N)]

R = XX/N

Compute eigenvalues 1 n and eigenvectors q1 qn

q1 qk , kn, belonging to nonzero 1 k ,, span RepS
1 k are the variances in the respective directions

Principal Components Residual Space

Residual Space (ResS):
complement of Representation Space, spanned by the
e-vectors qk+1 qn , belonging to (near) - zero e-values
Residual = (Observation) (Its projection on RepS)
Residuals exist in ResS
ResS provides isolation information
- directional property (fault-specific response directions)
- structural property (fault-specific Boolean structures)

Residual Space Directional Property

u

flow

y1
y2

y1

y2

y2
on u

residual

observation

q3

Repres. Space
q1

y1

on y1

q2
on y2

Residual Space

Residual Space Structural Property

u

u
r1

y1

y2

y1

r2
y2

r3

y1

r1, r2, r3 : residuals obtained by projection

r1
r2
r3

y1

y2

Structure matrix

0
1
1

1
1
0

1
0
1

Fault codes

y2

Model-Based Methods
faults f(t)
disturbances d(t)

noise n(t)

outputs y(t)
parameters

inputs u(t)

Complete model:

y(t) = f[u(), f(), d(), n(), ]

Nominal model:

y^(t) = f[u(), ]

Models are:

static/dynamic
linear/nonlinear

Obtaining Models
First principle models
Empirical models
- classical systems identification
- principal component approach
- neuronets

Analytical Redundancy
d(t)

f(t)

n(t)

u(t)

y(t)
PLANT
+
e(t)

RESIDUAL
PROCESSING

MODEL

y^(t)

Primary residuals:

e(t) = y(t) y^(t)

Processed residuals:

r(t)

r(t)

Analytical redundancy
f(t)
d(t)

n(t)

u(t)

y(t)
PLANT

RESIDUAL
GENERATOR
r(t)

Residual Properties
Detection properties
- sensitive to faults
- insensitive to disturbances (disturbance decoupling)
- insensitive to model errors (model-error robustness)
perfect decoupling under limited circumstances
optimal decoupling
- insensitive to noise
noise filtering
statistical testing

Residual Properties
Isolation properties
- selectively sensitive to faults
structured residuals
directional residuals
optimal residuals

perfect
decoupling

Residual Generation
u
u

Model:

flow

y1

y1 = u + u + y1

y2
y1

y2 = u + u + y2

y2

Primary residuals:
e1 = y1 u = u + y1

y1

y2

e2 = y2 u = u + y2
Processed residuals:

r1
r2

1
1

1
0

0
1

r1 = e1 = u + y1

r3

r2 = e2 = u + y2
r3 = e2 e1 = y2 y1

Structured residuals

Residual Generation
u
u

Model:

flow

y1

y1 = u + u + y1

y2
y1

Primary residuals:
e1 = y1 u = u + y1
e2 = y2 u = u + y2
Processed residuals:
r1 = e1 = u + y1
r2 = e2 = u + y2
r3 = e1 e2 = y1 y2

y2 = u + u + y2

y2
on y1

r1

r3

on u

r2

on y2
Directional residuals

Linear Residual Generation Methods

Perfect decoupling
- direct consistency relations
- parity relations from state-space model
- Luenberger observer
- unknown input observer
Approximate decoupling
- the above with singular value decomposition
- constrained least-squares
- H-infinity optimization

Linear Residual Generation Methods

Under identical conditions

(same plant, same response specification)
the various methods lead to
identical residual generators

Dynamic Consistency Relations

System description:
y(t) = M(q)u(t) + Sf(q)f(t) + Sd(q)d(t)
q : shift operator
Primary residuals:
e(t) = y(t) M(q)u(t) = Sf(q)f(t) + Sd(q)d(t)
Residual transformation:
r(t) = W(q)e(t) = W(q)[Sf(q)f(t) + Sd(q)d(t)]

Dynamic Consistency Relations

Response specification:
r(t) = f(q)f(t) + d(q)d(t)
f(q) : specified fault response (structured or directional)
d(q) : specified disturbance response (decoupling)
W(q)[Sf(q) Sd(q)] = [f(q)

d(q)]

Solution for square system:

W(q) = [f(q)

d(q)] [Sf(q) Sd(q)] -1

Dynamic Consistency Realtions

Realization:
The residual generator W(q) must be causal and stable;
[Sf(q) Sd(q)] -1 is usually not so
Modified specification:
W(q) = [f(q) d(q)] (q) [Sf(q) Sd(q)] -1
(q) : response modifier, to provide causality and
stability without interfering with specification

Implementation:
inverse is computed via the fault system matrix

Diagnosis via Systems Identification

Approach:
- create reference model by identification
- re-identify system on-line
discrepancy indicates parametric fault
Difficulty: discrete-time model parameters are nonlinear
functions of plant parameters
for small faults, fault-effect linearization
continuous-time model identification (noise
sensitive or requires initialization)

Applications
Very large systems
- Principal Components are widely used in
chemical plants
- reliable numerical package is available
An intermediate-size system: rain-gauge
network in Barcelona, Spain (structured parity
relations)
Aerospace: traditionally Kalman filtering

Applications
Mass-produced small systems:
on-board car-engine diagnosis
car-to-car variation (model variation robustness)
- GM: parity relations
- Ford: neuronets
- Daimler: parity relations + identification
Many published papers with application to
are just simulation studies

GM GMU On-Board Diagnosis Project

OBD-II: any component fault causing emissions
(CH, CO, NOX) go 50% over limit must be
detected on-line
Pilot project: intake manifold subsystem (THR,
MAP, MAF, EGR)
Structured parity relations based on direct
identification
After more in-house development, this is being
gradually introduced on GM cars

Filtered and integrated residual with fault

On-board report MAP fault

GM fleet experiment
Fleet of identical vehicles (Chevy Blazer) available at GM
Collect data from 25 vehicles
Identify models from combined data from 5 vehicles
Test on data from 25 vehicles
Residual means and variances vary
increase thresholds (sacrifice sensitivity)
Only a 50% increase is necessary

Fault sensitivities GM fleet experiment

Critical fault sizes for detection and diagnosis
(fleet experiment)
Thr

Iac

Egr

Map Maf

detection

2%

10% 12% 5%

2%

diagnosis

6%

20% 17% 7%

8%