Energy Conversion and Management 46 (2005) 31033116

www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman

Transient pattern analysis for fault detection and diagnosis

of HVAC systems
Sung-Hwan Cho a, Hoon-Cheol Yang b, M. Zaheer-uddin c,*
,
Byung-Cheon Ahn d
a
Department of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, Jeonju University, Hyojadong,
Wansangu, Jeonju, Jellabukdo 520-759, Korea
b
Building Energy Research Center, KIER, 71-2 Jang-Dong Yousung-Gu, Taejon 305-343, Korea
c
Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal H3G 1M8, Canada
d
Department of Building Equipment System Engineering, Kyung Won University, Kyung Kee Do 461-701, Korea

Received 16 April 2004; received in revised form 16 August 2004; accepted 25 February 2005

Abstract

Modern building HVAC systems are complex and consist of a large number of interconnected sub-
systems and components. In the event of a fault, it becomes very dicult for the operator to locate and
isolate the faulty component in such large systems using conventional fault detection methods. In this
study, transient pattern analysis is explored as a tool for fault detection and diagnosis of an HVAC system.
Several tests involving dierent fault replications were conducted in an environmental chamber test facility.
The results show that the evolution of fault residuals forms clear and distinct patterns that can be used to
isolate faults. It was found that the time needed to reach steady state for a typical building HVAC system is
at least 5060 min. This means incorrect diagnosis of faults can happen during online monitoring if the
transient pattern responses are not considered in the fault detection and diagnosis analysis.

2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: FDD (fault detection and diagnosis); VAV (variable air volume); Controller gain; Transient pattern ana-
lysis; HVAC systems

*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 514 848 3194.
E-mail address: zaheer@cbs-engr.bcee.concordia.ca (M. Zaheer-uddin).

0196-8904/$ - see front matter
2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2005.02.012
3104 S.-H. Cho et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 46 (2005) 31033116

Nomenclature

Heat heater power consumption, kW

TI room temperature, C
K controller gain
OD outdoor damper opening, %
OT outdoor temperature, C
PAI supply air pressure, Pa
R residual
SF supply fan output, %
SFR supply ow rate, m3/h
ST supply air temperature, C
T variable
VAVD VAV damper opening, %

Subscripts
F fault
I integral gain
MAX maximum
N no fault
P proportional gain

1. Introduction

Modern buildings are multi-storied and installed with several intelligent features. Accordingly,
the HVAC (heating, ventilating and air conditioning) systems have also become more varied and
complex to meet the needs of the buildings. This has made optimal operation and fault diagnosis
of HVAC systems a challenging task for operators. Faults in HVAC systems increase energy con-
sumption, shorten equipment life and degrade the indoor environment.
Therefore, a fault detection technology is necessary that detects performance deterioration
properly and responds quickly to deal with faults in order to improve the reliability and system
safety. A review of the literature shows that methods of fault diagnosis and analysis have been
studied by Wilsky [1], Basseville [2], Frank [3] and Iserman [4]. Knowledge based methods for
HVAC systems, which are applied to actual buildings, are examined by Katipamula et al. [5]
and House et al. [6]. Also, Lee et al. [7] used neural network methods for prediction and detection
of faults in an air handling unit (AHU). Recently, neural network and fuzzy control have been
used frequently for more reliable fault detection and diagnosis.
Conventional studies using neural networks rely on a predened set of fault patterns to diag-
nose faults. This study intends to provide the time evolution as the basis for analysis of the faults
occurring in HVAC systems. To this end, faults occurring in a VAV damper, supply fan, supply
temperature sensor, ow rate sensor, supply fan output and outdoor air damper of a VAV-HVAC
 S.-H. Cho et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 46 (2005) 31033116 3105

system will be investigated as these are the important elements of building HVAC systems. A fu-
ture goal of this research is to develop a reliable online fault detection and diagnosis process.

2. Experimental test facility

Experiments were conducted in a test room housed in an environmental chamber (EC) test
facility (Fig. 1). The EC is a multi-purpose research and test facility. It is used to conduct com-
prehensive and controlled experiments such as evaluation of HVAC control strategies, energy e-
ciency, thermal performance of building envelopes and fault detection and diagnostic studies. The
test facility consists of a main chamber and a three oor level attached space. On these three
oors, several test rooms are built. The overall dimensions of the test facility are given in Table
1. The test facility can simulate dierent outdoor weather conditions for conducting dierent tests
irrespective of the time of year or seasons. For example, any temperature between
25 C and
50 C can be created using a pre-selected rate of temperature increase/or decrease to simulate typi-
cal outdoor weather conditions. A complete list of the thermal parameters of the EC is given in
Table 2.

Fig. 1. Environmental chamber test facility.

3106 S.-H. Cho et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 46 (2005) 31033116

Table 1
Overall specications of the test facility
Size Chamber 136.08 m2 Over ground
2
Attached facility 249.48 m 1 oor: 4.5 m
2 oor: 3.6 m
3 oor: 3.6 m
Capacity 1428.8 m3
Structure Steel-frame, ferro-concrete
Objectives Research and testing
Air conditioning Central air conditioning
Control method Computer based automatic control

Table 2
Operating range of the environmental chamber
Parameter
Temperature control range
Temperature decrease rate
Temperature increase rate
Humidity control range
Capacity

25 C to 50 C (DB)
0 C8 C/h decrease
10 C20 C/h increase
Chamber Dew point temperature 6 C 1 C at 15 C (DB)
Dew point temperature 10 C 2 C at 24 C (DB)
Dew point temperature 2030 C 1 C at 15 C (DB)
Experimental test room 4080% (RH)

2.1. Experimental test rooms

Several dierent test rooms were built in the EC on the rst and second oors. The layout of the
test rooms is depicted in Fig. 2, and the overall dimensions of the test rooms are summarized in
Table 3. As shown in Fig. 2, the test facility consists of four dierent rooms. These include:
an experimental room for performance monitoring and control of radiant oor heating systems
(Ondol in Fig. 2); an experimental room for evaluating the energy eciency of heating/cooling
systems; an indoor environment and thermal comfort room; and an HVAC test room for the
study of FDD and control strategies. The HVAC test room can also be used to evaluate the per-
formance of under-oor air conditioning (UFAC) systems, variable air volume (VAV) systems
and to monitor indoor air quality (IAQ).
The results presented in this paper are based on tests conducted in the HVAC test room shown
in Fig. 2. A schematic diagram of the variable air volume air handling unit (AHU) and the loca-
tion of the sensors/actuators and controllers used in the fault detection and diagnosis experiments
are shown in Fig. 3. The AHU is a variable air volume unit that can vary the air ow rates in the
system by modulating the fan speed via a pressure controller. Similarly, a return air fan is made to
track the supply air fan while maintaining a constant air ow dierence. The two other control
loops used include a discharge air temperature control loop and an outdoor, return and exhaust
damper control loop. The specications of the AHU and the operating range of temperatures and
air ow conditions are depicted in Table 4.
 S.-H. Cho et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 46 (2005) 31033116 3107

Fig. 2. Layout of experimental test rooms.

Table 3
Dimensions of experimental test rooms
Construction Concrete
Area Total area 70.38 m2
1 Floor Experimental room for Ondol 3.0 m 5.1 m = 15.3 m2
Experimental room for equipment 3.9 m 3.0 m = 11.7 m2
2 Floor Experimental room for environment 3.0 m 2.1 m = 6.3 m2
Experimental room for HVAC 6.9 m 3.0 m = 20.7 m2

In the FDD experiments conducted, the supply air temperature was varied as a function of
room load, and the room air temperature was maintained at a chosen set point by regulating
the air ow rate to the room.

2.2. Accuracy of the sensors used in the experiments

Table 5 shows the summary of all sensors, actuators and instrumentation used in the experi-
ments. It can be noted that the temperature sensors have an accuracy of 0.5 K to 0.8 K,
whereas the accuracy of the ow rate measurements varied between 0.25% and 2.0% depending
on the type of ow rate measuring device used. This range of accuracy is considered to be quite
sucient in monitoring and diagnostic analysis in HVAC systems.

3. Theory of fault analysis

The methods for diagnosing the faults in an HVAC system are divided into fault detection and
fault diagnosis. To detect faults, it is necessary rst to dene a fault classication scheme and then
3108 S.-H. Cho et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 46 (2005) 31033116

R.F

AI AI

AO
Flow
AO differene
controller
AO AI
Damper VAV box
actuator controller
AHU
Controller AI
AI
AO
AO AO S.F
AI H H
AI C
C C
C
: Control signal AO zone
: Sensor signal pressure
: Temperature sensor controller
: Pressure sensor
AO : Analog output
AI : Analog input

Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of AHU and control system.

Table 4
Operating conditions in AHUHVAC test room
Component Operation range
Indoor condition Summer: 24 C (75.2 F)
Outdoor condition Summer: 30 C (86 F)
Supply fan Max: 1000 CMH (0.278 m3/s)
Min: 200 CMH (0.055 m3/s)
Return fan Max: 900 CMH (0.25 m3/s)
Min: 200 CMH (0.055 m3/s)
Cooling coil Capacity: 13,608 kcal/h (4.5 HP)
Condenser: 9072 kcal/h (3 HP) 4536 kcal/h (1.5 HP)
Inlet cooling water temperature: 7 C
Outlet cooling water temperature: 13 C
Heating coil Max. electric demand: 10 kW
Control method: P, PI, PID and manual
Mixing damper Control method: P, PI, PID and manual
Supply set pressure 45 mmAq (448 Pa)

diagnose faults by using residuals of the characteristic values. Fault diagnosis methods include
rule based diagnosis, recognition of statistical pattern, articial neural networks and fuzzy logic.
 S.-H. Cho et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 46 (2005) 31033116 3109

Table 5
Accuracy of the sensors, actuators and instrumentation
No Source Sensor Make Model Accuracy
1 Temperature Thermocouple OMEGA T-type 0.5 K
2 Pressure Pressure sensor Parker ZB-12 0.25%
3 Flow rate Pitot tube Dwyer Inst. Inc. 166-6 2.0%
4 Flow rate Pressure transducer MODUS Inst. Inc. 140-07EC 1.0%
5 Flow rate Damper Temperature, RTD Honeywell Aircel 0.8 K
Flow rate, Airow pickup 2.0%
6 Ampere Ampere meter Synergistic control systems CT-100-S 1.0%
7 Potential transducer Ampere meter Synergistic control systems 25A182 .0%

The residual is the dierence between the value of the state with no fault and its value with fault.
Faults are diagnosed by using the pattern obtained from normalized values of the residuals. The
residuals used in this paper are dened as follows:
ROD ODN
ODF 1
RTI TIN
TIF 2
RSFR SFRN
SFRF 3
RST STN
STF 4
RSF SFN
SFF 5
Eqs. (1)(5) show the residuals relative to the normal and failed states of the outdoor air damper,
indoor temperature sensor, supply ow rate sensor, supply air temperature and supply fan, respec-
tively. In Eq. (6), the normalized residual is dened where a dummy variable T is used to describe
the outputs from OD, the outdoor air damper; TI, the indoor temperature sensor; SFR, the ow
rate sensor; ST, the supply temperature; and SF, the fan output. The subscript N refers to the
state with no fault, and subscript F refers to the fault state.
TN
TF
RT 6
jT N
T F jMAX

4. Experimental study

Faults in the following important elements of an HVAC system were considered in this study.
These include: fan, sensors and dampers. Therefore, this study intends to provide per-hour analy-
sis of the performance characteristics and fault diagnosis of each element subject to a fault occur-
ring in a VAV damper, supply fan, ow rate sensor, supply pressure sensor and outdoor air
damper. The transient response characteristics will be analyzed to seek patterns that could be used
in diagnosing and detecting faults in HVAC systems.
3110 S.-H. Cho et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 46 (2005) 31033116

Table 6
Normal operating condition of VAV system
Variable Description Magnitude
OT Outdoor air temperature 5 C
PAI Supply air pressure 441 Pa
OD Outdoor damper 30%
ST Supply air temp 36 C
TI Indoor air temperature 22 C

4.1. Experimental operating conditions

The VAV damper is one of the most important elements having the largest eect on the in-
door temperature of the building. Therefore, it is of interest to determine what eect a fault in
other elements (fan, sensor, damper etc.) has on HVAC system operation depending on whether
the VAV damper is properly tuned or not. To analyze the transient fault patterns, we have simu-
lated faults in a fan, sensors and a damper under three dierent sets of VAV damper controller
gains. These three sets of controller parameters gains were chosen such that they represented an
optimal gain set, a high gain set (+20%) and a low gain (
20%) set. The magnitude of the gain
parameters KP and KI of the VAV damper were as follows: optimal values of gains were KP =
0.2 and KI = 0.5. The high gains were 0.25 and 0.6; and the low gains were 0.15 and 0.4, respec-
tively.
The air temperature in the chamber was set to 5 C, replicating the outdoor air conditions in
winter. Based on this outdoor temperature, the supply pressure, outdoor air damper position, sup-
ply temperature and indoor temperature were set to the desired normal operating conditions for
heating as shown in Table 6. In the tests conducted, each element was set to cause a fault mag-
nitude of 20% from its nominal value.

4.2. Experimental procedure

In preparation for testing, the environmental chamber (EC) is turned on and allowed to reach
steady state, replicating the outdoor air temperature conditions of 5 C. It takes about 2448 h to
establish steady state conditions in the EC (Fig. 1). At the same time, the VAV-AHU in the test
room was also turned on and allowed to reach its normal operating condition (Table 6). To con-
duct each diagnostic test, the VAV system is brought back to its normal operating condition.
With the VAV system at its normal operating point, a prescribed magnitude of fault is intro-
duced in the element under consideration. For example, to simulate a supply air temperature
fault, the supply air temperature sensor output was increased by 20%. In other words, a 36 C
supply temperature with a +20% fault will show an output of 43.2 C. The controller receives this
temperature as the actual temperature and regulates the system outputs based on this faulty sen-
sor reading. The transient response proles depicted in Fig. 4c are one set of such measured
responses from the simulation test involving the supply temperature sensor fault. These responses
show the evolution of supply temperature under three dierent sets of controller gains. It is
apparent that the supply air temperature reaches the same nal value since, in each case, the
 S.-H. Cho et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 46 (2005) 31033116 3111

3.0 500
VAV Damper Control
2.8 450 Normal Gain
2.6 400 High Gain

Flow Rate(CMH)
Low Gain
Heater(kW)

2.4 350

2.2 300
VAV Damper Control
2.0 Normal Gain 250
High Gain
1.8 Low Gain 200

1.6 150
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
(a) Elapsed time(minutes) (b) Elapsed time(minutes)
45 75

Supply Fan Pressure Output(%)

VAV Damper Control
43 70 Normal Gain
Supply Temperature(C)

High Gain
41 65 Low Gain

39 VAV Damper Control 60

Normal Gain
High Gain
37 55
Low Gain

35 50
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
(c) Elapsed time(minutes) (d) Elapsed time(minutes)

Fig. 4. Transient output responses from each component after onset of fault. (a) Heater power with OA-damper fault.
(b) Air ow rate with indoor temperature sensor fault. (c) Supply temperature with supply temperature sensor fault. (d)
Supply fan pressure with supply fan fault (based on rpm of fan).

sensor error was +20% from its normal value. The eect of the controller gains is evident during
the initial 10 min of the responses shown in Fig. 4c. In a similar manner, the test procedure was
repeated by inducing faults in the other elements, one at a time, and recording the ensuing output
responses of the system.

4.3. Experimental results

4.3.1. Performance characteristics of the system

Fig. 4 shows the output responses of the system measured by each element in real time over
90 min immediately after the faults occurred at the supply fan, supply temperature, ow rate sen-
sor and outdoor air damper. The measurements were made for three sets of gains (optimal gain,
high gain and low gain) as described above.
The outdoor air damper in Fig. 4a, indoor temperature sensor in Fig. 4b, supply temperature
sensor in Fig. 4c and supply fan in Fig. 4d were set to generate outputs changed by 20% from their
normal settings (Table 6) to replicate the faults. Fig. 4 shows that recovery to steady state
occurred as time elapsed. The supply fan recovered to steady state within 10 min after the fault.
3112 S.-H. Cho et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 46 (2005) 31033116

In contrast, the heater power (with outdoor air damper fault), indoor temperature sensor and
supply temperature sensor required about 5060 min to reach steady state in spite of their fast re-
sponses soon after the occurrence of the fault.
A fault in the outdoor air damper caused between 5% and 10% output variations in heater
power depending on the degree of VAV damper tuning. The indoor temperature sensors output
varied within 7%, and the variations in supply temperature sensor and supply fan were within 2%.

4.3.2. Time trend monitoring and analysis of fault patterns

Continuous measurements were made over a period of 90 min by replicating an error of 20% in
each element to simulate a fault. From this data set, the residuals and the normalized residuals
were computed at 10 min and 90 min after the fault occurrence. Thus, a total of nine sets of resi-
dual data sequences were computed. These data sets capture the time evolution pattern of the resi-
duals. As an example, Tables 7 and 8 show the monitored data, residuals and normalized values
corresponding to a snap shot at 10 min and 90 min after the onset of the fault. The latter data set
corresponds to the case in which full recovery to the normal operation state occurs. In Tables 7
and 8, the heater output, VAV damper opening and supply ow rate show variations in their

Table 7
Pattern analysis 10 min after the fault occurrence
Heat (kW) VAVD (%) ST (C) SF (%) SFR (CMH)
Actual data
Normal 1.923 45.24 35.98 68.99 376.29
OD 2.229 45.078 35.91 68.81 376.29
TI 2.193 45.08 35.91 68.34 376.29
SFR 2.157 44.59 36.37 68.55 456.10
ST 3.192 45.48 41.05 69.84 386.42
SF 2.183 44.50 36.12 57.35 363.41
Residual data
OD 0.306
0.16
0.07
0.18 0.0
TI 0.270
0.16
0.07
0.65 0.0
SFR 0.234
0.65 0.39
0.43 79.81
ST 1.269 0.24 5.07 0.85 10.14
SF 0.260
0.74 0.14 11.64
12.88
Normalized value
OD 0.241 0.21
0.01
0.02 0.0
TI 0.213 0.21
0.01
0.06 0.0
SFR 0.185 0.87 0.08
0.04 1.0
ST 1.0
0.32 1.0 0.07 0.13
SF 0.205 1.0 0.03
1.0
0.16
Normalized pattern
OD 0 0 0 0 0
TI 0 0 0 0 0
SFR 0 1 0 0 1
ST 1 0 1 0 0
SF 0 1 0 1 0
 S.-H. Cho et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 46 (2005) 31033116 3113

Table 8
Pattern analysis 90 min after the fault occurrence
Heat (kW) VAVD (%) ST (C) SF (%) SFR (CMH)
Actual data
Normal 1.923 45.24 35.98 68.99 376.29
OD 2.562 46.93 35.98 69.71 404.16
TI 1.938 36.45 36.30 65.64 258.59
SFR 2.241 47.54 35.83 69.20 480.82
ST 2.714 35.04 43.93 65.70 235.95
SF 2.290 46.96 36.00 57.33 393.27
Residual data
OD 0.639 1.69 0.0 0.73 27.88
TI 0.015
8.79 0.32
3.35
117.69
SFR 0.318 2.30
0.15 0.22 104.53
ST 0.791
10.20 7.95
3.28
140.34
SF 0.367 1.72 0.02
11.66 16.99
Normalized value
OD 0.807 0.17 0.0 0.66 0.20
TI 0.019
0.86 0.04
0.29
0.84
SFR 0.402 0.23
0.02 0.22 0.74
ST 1.0
1.0 1.0
0.28
1.0
SF 0.464 0.17 0.0
1.0 0.12
Normalized pattern
OD 1 0 0 0 0
TI 0 1 0 0 1
SFR 0 0 0 0 1
ST 1 1 1 0 1
SF 0 0 0 1 0

respective outputs by as much as 20%. Thus, these outputs are identied as highly sensitive
responses as a function of time. In contrast, the supply temperature sensor or supply fan signals
show less than 5% variations, which are classied here as moderately sensitive responses. The
residuals and normalized values calculated on the basis of these results show noticeable dierences
in the indoor temperature sensor, supply ow rate sensor, supply temperature sensor and supply
fan outputs. These results mean that the diagnosis results can be completely dierent depending
on their time evolution.
Fig. 5 shows the transient pattern evolutions due to faults in the important elements. This gure
shows that soon after replication of the faults in elements such as the indoor temperature sensor,
supply ow rate sensor and supply fan, the outputs recover to their normal state in about 10
20 min (Fig. 5b, c and e). However, the outdoor damper and the supply temperature sensor
recover to their normal state in about 60 min (Fig. 5a and d). On the basis of the above observa-
tion, the results in Fig. 5ae could be divided into two groups: a fast system pattern and a slow
system pattern. The output fault patterns of the indoor temperature sensor, supply ow rate sen-
sor and supply fan output fall into the fast system patterns. The outdoor damper and supply air
temperature sensor faults can be categorized as slow system patterns.
3114 S.-H. Cho et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 46 (2005) 31033116

Fig. 5. Transient pattern analysis. (a) The case of OA-damper fault. (b) Indoor temperature sensor fault. (c) Flow rate
sensor fault. (d) Supply temperature sensor fault. (e) Supply fan output fault.

The rst observation that can be made from the transient patterns in Fig. 5ae is that, irrespec-
tive of the fact the residual patterns are either fast or slow, their time evolution is distinct and is
clearly identiable with respect to the magnitude of the VAV damper controller gain (optimal
gain, high and low gains).
The fast transient pattern evolutions in Fig. 5b, c and e show the eect of the VAV damper con-
troller gain in the initial 1020 min on the residual patterns. For example, consider the supply fan
 S.-H. Cho et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 46 (2005) 31033116 3115

output fault pattern shown in Fig. 5e. With optimal gain for the VAV damper, it is noted that in
the initial 10 min, the VAV damper shows dominant interactions with the supply fan (pattern K).
As the gain is increased, the pattern K changes to pattern L in which the SFR sensor fault
dominates.
On the other hand, as the controller gain is decreased, the supply fan output shows a stable
pattern (pattern M). In this case, faults from the neighboring elements do not have an eect on
the supply fan output. These time-trend patterns do show a noticeable bias to changes in the con-
troller gains in terms of either sensitizing or desensitizing the impact of the neighboring elements
on the fault patterns of the element under consideration.
Likewise, the slow system fault patterns show that higher controller gain faults tend to be inu-
enced by faults in the neighboring elements (Fig. 5a and d, patterns B, I and J). For example, the
supply air temperature sensor fault pattern (Fig. 5d, pattern I) shows that as the VAV damper
gain is increased, the heater power and VAV damper faults inuence the supply air temperature
sensor fault, showing a strong interaction among the sensor faults. On the other hand, a decrease
in the VAV damper gain (Fig. 5d, pattern J) induces interactions among the outputs from ele-
ments such as the heater power signal, VAV damper output, supply air temperature and supply
ow rate sensor outputs. These time evolutions of patterns are distinct and oer additional infor-
mation in recognizing the fault patterns in HVAC systems.
The experimental results show that the controller gains not only aect the fault patterns but
also the recovery time as well. For example, the eect of VAV damper tuning on the fault patterns
depicted in Fig. 5 show that the time of pattern change increases as the VAV gain increases. In

Fig. 6. Time required to reach steady state.

Table 9
Time required to reach steady state condition
Fault Low gain (min) Optimal gain (min) High gain (min)
OA 50 60 90
TI 10 20 20
SFR 0 10 20
ST 40 50 50
SF 0 10 10
3116 S.-H. Cho et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 46 (2005) 31033116

other words, an increase in the controller gain increases the length of recovery time to the steady
state. However, when recovery to steady state was made, the degree of tuning did not have any
eect on the pattern. The VAV gain had a slight eect at the beginning of fault and did not have
a large eect after recovery from the fault was made. The time required for recovery to steady state
depended on the fault type and the gain. These results are summarized in Fig. 6 and Table 9.

5. Conclusions

The transient analysis of residual patterns is a useful technique in diagnosing faults in HVAC
systems. The results show that the time evolution of fault patterns in the VAV system can be clas-
sied as fast and slow patterns. From the experimental results, the following specic conclusions
were drawn.

(1) The time evolution of fault patterns shows that faults in neighboring elements strongly inu-
ence each other in an identiable manner as the faults recover to steady state.
(2) When faults occurred at elements of the HVAC system, the supply fan recovered to steady
state within 10 min after onset of the fault. However, it took much longer (about 5060 min)
for the outdoor air damper, indoor temperature sensor and supply sensor to recover to
steady state.
(3) In diagnosing faults, it was found that the VAV damper gain had an eect on the fault pat-
tern in the rst 1020 min. However, when recovery to steady state was made, the gain had
no eect on the fault pattern.
(4) Since recovery to steady state requires about 60 min when an HVAC system experiences a
fault, on-line fault diagnosis without considering these system characteristics may generate
dierent diagnosis results. This has to be taken into consideration in developing comprehen-
sive fault detection and diagnostic methods.

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