The 19th International Symposium on Transport Phenomena

17-21 August, 2008, Reykjavik, ICELAND

DETECTION OF FOULING IN A HEAT EXCHANGER USING A RECURSIVE SUBSPACE

IDENTIFICATION ALGORITHM

S. Lalot1 , G. Mercère2
1
Université de Valenciennes et du Hainaut Cambrésis, Laboratoire de Mécanique et d’Energétique
Le Mont Houy, 59313 Valenciennes Cedex 9, FRANCE
sylvain.lalot@univ-valenciennes.fr
2
Université de Poitiers, Laboratoire d’Automatique et d’Informatique Industrielle
40, avenue du recteur Pineau, 86022 Poitiers, FRANCE
guillaume.mercere@univ-poitiers.fr

ABSTRACT They are moreover implemented using robust numer-

Recursive system identification is a powerful tool for
model-based fault diagnosis. One of these algorithms
is used to monitor a progressively fouled counter-flow
heat exchanger. The latter is modeled in a CFD code,
and fouling is represented by a variation of the con-
ductivity of the tube wall between the fluids. It is
shown that the poles of a particular state-space model
vary in accordance with the fouling factor. A statistical
test (CUSUM test) is applied to detect fouling before a
critical point (sizing fouling factor) is reached.
INTRODUCTION
Fouling has been and is still a major concern in a great
number of industrial processes such as refineries, di-
ary factories, district heating and so on. Fouling has
been identified as a key problem by the CNRS (French
National Center for Scientific Research) (see (Spinner
& Fabre, 2003)).
Many researchers present the influence of flow con-
ditions or surface properties on the fouling rate (e.g.,
(Kukulka & Devgun, 2007), (Rosmaninho & Melo,
2007)). Others study the chemical process of the de-
position (e.g., (Fahiminia, et al., 2005), (Mwaba, et al.,
2006).
Some researchers study the way to monitor or de-
tect fouling. Apart from local measuring techniques
such as proposed, e.g. in (Bott, 2000), (Ismail, et al.,
2004) or (Withers, 1996), model-based techniques
are more and more popular. The model can be
a ”black-box” model such as neural networks (e.g.
(Lalot, et al., 2007), or based on physical parame-
ters such as Extended Kalman Filters (e.g. (Jonsson,
et al., 2007)).
In this paper a new ”black-box” approach is pre-
sented. The developed algorithm is based on the sub-
space identification approach (Katayama, 2005), (Ver-
haegen & Verdult, 2007). The subspace-based iden-
tification algorithms are in fact attractive since they
estimate a state-space realization directly from input-
output data, without requiring canonical parameteri-
zations and non linear optimizations, which is typically
the case for prediction error methods (Ljung, 1999).
ical tools such as the RQ factorization or the singu-
lar value decomposition (SVD) (Golub & Van Loan,
1996), which make them interesting from a numerical
point of view. The batch subspace model identifica-
tion algorithms are however not usable for online im-
plementation because of the SVD computational com-
plexity. Now, in many online identification scenarios, it
is important to update the model as time goes on with
a reduced computational cost. Consequently, it has
been necessary to find SVD alternative algorithms in
order to apply the subspace concept in a recursive
framework. The method proposed hereafter is based
on the adaptation of a particular array signal process-
ing technique to the recursive subspace identification
problem: the propagator (Munier & Delisle, 1991).
The main advantage of this approach lies in the use of
a linear operator and a quadratic criterion which lead
to recursive least squares implementation for the algo-
rithm (Mercère, et al., 2008). This characteristic has
recently allowed the analysis of the convergence prop-
erties of the developed technique for the recursive up-
date of the subspace estimates (Mercère & Lovera,
2007). It has also been used with success to online
track the modal parameters of airplanes during test
flights (De Cock, et al., 2006).
The outline of this communication is as follows.
In the first section, the heat exchanger is presented
along with the data to be analyzed. Then, in the sec-
ond section, the basic idea of subspace-based state-
space system identification is detailed. The problem
of the recursive estimation of the system’s state-space
matrices is considered in the third section. The fourth
section is dedicated to the application of the method
to the heat exchanger. The last section shows that
fouling can be detected before the sizing fouling factor
is reached.
THE HEAT EXCHANGER
The heat exchanger used in the case study is similar
to what has been presented in (Lalot, et al., 2007). It
is a water to water counterflow tube-in-tube heat ex-
changer. The inner diameter of the tube (made of
 The 19th International Symposium on Transport Phenomena
17-21 August, 2008, Reykjavik, ICELAND

100
stainless steel) separating the cold fluid and the hot

Outlet temperatures (°C)

fluid is 14mm. Its outer diameter is 18mm. The outer 90
diameter of the annulus is 26mm. The hot fluid is Cold fluid

flowing in the inner tube (the cold fluid is then flow- 80

ing in the annulus). The length of the exchanger is

11m. The experiments are simulated using a CFD 70

software (namely F LUENTr ), in an axisymmetric con-

60
figuration. The standard κ − ε model is used, as the
flow is turbulent in all the studied configurations for 50

both fluids. It has been verified that the time step is Hot fluid

short enough. It has been found that 0.5s is suitable. 40

It has also been verified that the size of the cells is Sample #
30
correct (in terms of boundary layer description, and 1 1.05 1.1 1.15 1.2 1.25 1.3 1.35 1.4 1.45 1.5
4
x 10
in terms of length/width ratio), and of course that the
outlet temperatures during steady states are correctly
determined. Fig. 2.: Outlet temperatures and mass flow rates for
100
the hot and cold sides (partial view).
Inlet temperatures (°C)

90 Hot fluid
routine is used in the CFD software which represents
80 a fouling scenario.
This fouling factor is plotted (Fig. 3) versus dimen-
70
sionless time; the latter is defined as the ratio of the
60
sample number to the total number of samples during
the fouling period. It can be seen that the variation
50 is similar to the variation observed (after a slight de-
crease which is not taken into account here) in (Hays,
40
et al., 2005), (Fahiminia, et al., 2005) or (Mwaba,
Cold fluid

30
Sample #
et al., 2006).
1 1.05 1.1 1.15 1.2 1.25 1.3 1.35 1.4 1.45 1.5
4
x 10
−3
x 10
Mass flow rates (kg/s)

2
Fouling factor (m².K / W)

1.8
0.25

1.6

0.2
Cold fluid 1.4

1.2
0.15
1 0.949

0.1 0.8 Rf = 0.0007

Hot fluid

0.6
0.05
0.4
0.663

Sample # Rf = 0.0001
0.2
0
1 1.05 1.1 1.15 1.2 1.25 1.3 1.35 1.4 1.45 1.5
4
x 10 0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
Dimensionless time

Fig. 1.: Inlet temperatures and mass flow rates for the
hot and cold sides (partial view). Fig. 3.: Fouling factor versus dimensionless time.

To take account of the measurement noise during Typical values of the fouling factor can be found in
on-field tests as recommended by e.g. the European e.g. (Çengel, 1997) or (Incropera & DeWitt, 2002).
Commission in (2006), it has been considered nec- For water, the fouling factor is typically comprised in
essary to add a +/-1.5o C (for the temperatures) and the range [0.0001, 0.0007]. This interval is smaller than
a +/-2% (for the mass flow rates) normally distributed the interval covered by the variation of the thermal
random noise to all values (inputs and outputs). Fig. 1 conductivity, and corresponds to the [0.663, 0.949] in-
and 2 show partial views of the data that are actually terval of the dimensionless time (Fig. 3). To be effi-
used. cient and useful, the detection technique has to detect
To simulate fouling, the thermal conductivity of the fouling before this upper limit.
inner tube has been continuously decreased; a sub- As for any detection technique, it is necessary to
 The 19th International Symposium on Transport Phenomena
17-21 August, 2008, Reykjavik, ICELAND

Pt
get data for a clean exchanger before being able to be denoted by R̂ab (t) = k=1 λt−k a(k)bT (k), where
detect fouling. Hence, the database is composed of 0 < λ ≤ 1 is a forgetting factor.
two sets: the first set corresponds to a clean period, The key problem of OSIM is the consistent estima-
and the second set corresponds to the progressively tion of the extended observability matrix column space
fouled heat exchanger. defined as (f is a user fixed integer chosen such as
f > nx )
SUBSPACE IDENTIFICATION OVERVIEW h
T iT
Subspace-based approach for system identification is Γf = CT (CA)T · · · CAf −1
a particular field of experimental modeling which has
from measured I/O samples (Viberg, 1995). It is in-
reached a definite maturity from now on, as shown by
deed relatively straightforward to extract the state-
numerous reference articles (Larimore, 1990), (Ver-
space matrices (up to a similarity transformation) from
haegen, 1994), (Van Overschee & De Moor, 1994),
Γf by exploiting particular properties of this matrix
(Viberg, 1995), (Bauer, 2005) and various applica-
such as its shift invariance (see e.g. (Katayama, 2005)
tion papers (Verhaegen, et al., 1994), (Kukreja, et al.,
for an overview of the the state-space matrices esti-
1995), (Abdelghani, et al., 1998), (Mevel, et al., 1999),
mation techniques).
(Favoreel, et al., 2000). Offline subspace identifi-
cation methods (OSIM) are attractive since a multi-
Basic idea of subspace identification
input multi-output (MIMO) state-space realization can
The starting point of the OSIM for the estimation of the
be directly estimated from input/output (I/O) data with-
column space of Γf is the so called ”data equation”
out non linear optimization. Furthermore, these tech-
(Viberg, 1995)
niques are characterized by the use of robust numeri-
cal tools such as the RQ factorization and SVD which Yf (τ ) = Γf X(τ ) + Hf Uf (τ ) + Gf Ef (τ )
make them attractive from a numerical point of view.
where Uf , Yf , Wf and Vf are Hankel matrices de-
fined as follows
Problem formulation and assumptions  
Consider the following linear time-invariant system in u(t) ··· u(t + M − 1)
 u(t + 1) ··· u(t + M ) 
its innovation form  
Uf (τ ) =  .. . .  (1)
 . . . .
. 
x(t + 1) = Ax(t) + Bu(t) + Ke(t)
u(t + f − 1) · · · u(t + f + M − 2)
y(t) = Cx(t) + Du(t) + e(t)
with M >> f > nx and τ = t + M − 1, where Hf
with nu inputs u, ny outputs y, a nx dimensional state and Gf are the block Toeplitz matrices of the impulse
vector x and an innovation process noise e. The goal response respectively from u to y and from e to y
of subspace identification methods is to estimate the  
D 0 ··· 0
system matrices [A, B, C, D], up to a similarity trans-  CB D ··· 0
formation, given a sequence of the measured input  
Hf = 
 CAB CB ··· 0 
and output signals. For that, the following assump-  .. .. .. .
tions are required  . . . .. 
CAf −2 B CAf −3 B ··· D
• the system is asymptotically stable,  
I 0 ··· 0
• the pair {A, C} is observable,  CK
 I ··· 0 
Gf =  CAK
 CK ··· 0 
• the input and the innovation are jointly stationary  .. .. .. .. 
and uncorrelated i.e.
 . . . .
CAf −2 K CAf −3 K ··· I
T
Ē{e(k)e (l)} = Re δ(k, l)  
and where X = x(t) · · · x(t + M − 1) . On the
T
Ē{e(k)u (l)} = 0 for k > l basis of this data equation, it is easy to show that

where δ(k, l) denotes the Kronecker delta func- spancol {Yf } ⊆ spancol {Γf } +
tion and spancol {Hf } + spancol {Bf } .
N
1 X The identification problem is then to isolate the
Ē [·] = lim E [·] subspace spancol {Γf } from the knowledge of
N →∞ N
t=1
spancol {Yf }. A number of OSIM have been devel-
with E{•} the mathematical expectation. oped to work out accurate estimates of the column
space of the observability matrix from the available I/O
In the following, with some abuse of notations, the data. Most of them are based on three major steps:
cross
 covariance
 matrix will be denoted as Rab = projection, model reduction and parameter estimation
Ē a(t)bT (t) while estimates of signal correlations will (Qin, 2006).
 The 19th International Symposium on Transport Phenomena
17-21 August, 2008, Reykjavik, ICELAND

Projection The extraction of the B and D matrices is based on

Open loop OSIM first cancel the forced response the following observation. The output of the identified
Hf Uf by applying an orthogonal projection of the model is given by
row space of Yf onto the complement of the row t−1
X
space of Uf i.e. Yf ΠU⊥ f
with ΠU⊥f
= Inu f − ŷ(t) = D̂u(t) + ĈÂt−k−1 B̂u(k).
 −1
k=0
UTf Uf Uf T Uf (Golub & Van Loan, 1996). More
precisely, Thus, by using the vectorization operator vec{•}
(Katayama, 2005), it can be proved that
Yf ΠU⊥ = Γf XΠU⊥ + Gf Ef ΠU⊥  
f f f ŷ(t) = uT (t) ⊗ Iny vec{D̂}
→ Γf XΠU⊥
f
+ Gf Ef when M → ∞ " t−1
X
#
+ uT (k) ⊗ ĈÂt−k−1 vec{B̂}
under open loop assumption. k=0
Then, the noise term is removed by introducing an
1 T where ⊗ is the Kronecker product (Katayama, 2005).
T
Ξ such that limM→∞ M Bf Ξ =
instrumental variable
Since this relation is linear in vec{B̂} and vec{D̂}, the
0 and rank XΞ = nx . The instruments are gener-
B and D matrices can be estimated via a classic least
ally chosen as past inputs and/or past outputs Hankel
squares algorithm.
matrices (Katayama, 2005).
Both cancellations are performed in a stable and ef-
PROPAGATOR-BASED METHOD FOR RECURSIVE
ficient way thanks to the following RQ factorization
SUBSPACE MODEL IDENTIFICATION
  
Uf R11 0 0
 
Q1 One of the reasons for the success of OSIM is the
 Ξ  = R21 R22 0  Q2  (2) direct correspondence between geometric operations
Yf R31 R32 R33 Q3 on matrices constructed from I/O data and their im-
plementation in terms of well known, stable, and re-
Indeed, it is nowadays well known that under these liable algorithms from the field of numerical linear al-
assumptions (Verhaegen, 1994) gebra. However, as shown previously, the batch sub-
space modeI identification techniques are based on
1 1 tools such as the SVD which are not suitable for online
lim √ R32 Q2 = lim √ Γf X. (3)
M→∞ M M→∞ M implementation due to their computational complex-
ity. In fact, in many online identification scenarios, it is
Model reduction important to update the model as time goes on with
Once the projection step is achieved, the extraction of a reduced computational cost. Thus, the challeng-
the observability subspace from the block matrix R32 ing problem is to develop new techniques avoiding the
is realized by applying a SVD. This tool allows to re- use of such burdensome tools. Furthermore, an unbi-
duce the high order model identified in the previous ased updating scheme must be developed in the pres-
phase to an appropriate low dimensional subspace ence of noise. In fact, the main issue of the recursive
which is observable. More particularly, the following subspace identification methods is to find SVD alter-
SVD is considered native algorithms to recursively update the observabil-

 Σs 0
 T ity subspace. More precisely, it is essential to define
 Vs
R32 = Us Ub . a suitable and efficient computational scheme for the
0 Σb VbT
extraction of its column space, without performing the
It can be proved that Us contains the nx princi- full singular value decomposition at each time step. To
pal left singular vectors and the diagonal matrix Σs this purpose, consider the I/O Hankel matrices 1 and
the corresponding singular values (Katayama, 2005). assume that, at time τ + 1, new data samples u(τ + 1)
Thus, the system order can be estimated by analyzing and y(τ + 1) are acquired. Then, each of the previous
the singular values. The estimate of the observability matrices are modified by the addition of a column, re-
matrix (for some state-space realization) is then taken spectively denoted with uf (τ + 1) and yf (τ + 1) and
as defined as
 T
yf (τ ) = yT (τ ) · · · yT (τ + f − 1) ∈ Rny f ×1 .
Γ̂s = Us .
Then, it is easy to show that the output vector is given
State-space matrices extraction by
The estimation of the system state-space matrices is yf (τ ) = Γf x(τ ) + Hf uf (τ ) + Gf ef (τ ).
most of the time performed in two stages. Firstly, C is
read from the first ny rows of whereas A is computed The basic idea of the developed recursive subspace
by solving the overdetermined system identification algorithm consists in updating the previ-
ous Equation as each new data acquisition by adapt-
Γ̂f (1 : ny (f − 1), :)Â = Γ̂f (ny + 1 : ny f, :). ing both steps composing the classic OSIM. Thus, the
 The 19th International Symposium on Transport Phenomena
17-21 August, 2008, Reykjavik, ICELAND

global complexity load is reduced in comparison with supplying a decomposition of the observation space
the batch approach. into two complementary subspaces via the use of a
simple linear operator.
Updating of the RQ factorization More particularly, assuming that the system is ob-
The basic idea of this approach is to consider the RQ servable, the observability matrix has, at least, nx lin-
decomposition 2 and its update at each new acqui- early independent rows. Under the hypothesis that the
sition (Lovera, et al., 2000). More precisely, when a order nx is a priori known, it is possible to build a per-
new I/O couple is acquired, this decomposition is com- mutation matrix S ∈ Rny f ×ny f such that the extended
pleted as follows observability matrix can be decomposed in the follow-
  R (τ ) 0    ing way
√ 11 0 u (τ +1) f Q1 (τ ) 0  
λ R21 (τ ) R22 (τ ) 0  ξ(τ +1) Q2 (τ ) 0 Γ }Rnx ×nx
R31 (τ ) R32 (τ ) R33 (τ ) yf (τ +1) 0 1 SΓf = f1
Γf2 }Rny f −nx ×nx
where λ is a forgetting factor used to weight the past where Γf1 is the block of nx independent rows and
informations. Two sequences of Givens rotations G1 Γf2 the matrix of the ny f − nx others. By construc-
and G2 can then be used to annihilate the stacked tion, Γf2 can be expressed as a linear combination
input vector and the instruments and bring back the of Γf1 . More particularly, there is a unique opera-
factor R to a block lower triangular form (Golub & Van tor Pf ∈ Rnx ×ny f −nx named propagator such that
Loan, 1996) Γf2 = PTf Γf1 . It is also easy to verify that
         
R11 (τ ) 0 0 uf (τ +1) Γf1 Γf1 I
= nTx Γf1 .
√
λ R21 (τ ) R22 (τ )
 0  ξ(τ +1) G1 (τ +1)G2 (τ +1) = SΓf = =
R31 (τ ) R32 (τ ) R33 (τ ) yf (τ +1) Γf2 PTf Γf1 Pf
  | {z }
R11 (τ +1)  0 0 i 0
Eo
R21 (τ +1) √λ R22 (τ ) 0 ξ̌(τ +1) G2 (τ +1) =
R31 (τ +1) R32 (τ ) R33 (τ ) žf (τ +1)
 R11 (τ +1)  This proves that the columns of SΓf are linear com-
0 0 0
binations of Eo . Now, since rank (Γf1 ) = nx ,
R21 (τ +1) R22 (τ +1) 0 0 .
√
R31 (τ +1) R32 (τ +1) λR33 (τ ) ˇ
žf (τ +1) spancol (SΓf ) = spancol (Eo ). This relation implies
that it is possible to determine the observability ma-
(Mercère, et al., 2008) have shown that trix in a particular basis from Eo . Hence, the compu-
tation of such a matrix only requires to estimate the
R32 (t)RT32 (t) = λR32 (t − 1)RT32 (t − 1)+ propagator. Thus, assuming that the order nx is a pri-
T ori known and the system is observable, an estimate
žf (t)žTf (t) − ˇ
žf (t)ˇ
žf (t). (4)
of the subspace spanned by the observability matrix
Now, according to Eq. 3, we have is available by estimating Pf . For that, consider the
relation
1 1
lim R32 RT32 = lim Γf XXT ΓTf . R̂zf = Γf Rx ΓTf
M→∞ M M→∞ M
introduced in the previous Subsection (see Eq. 5 and
Thus, it follows that
6), Then, in the propagator basis, we have
n o  
T
E žf (t)žTf (t) − žˇf (t)ˇ
žf (t) = Γf Rx ΓTf . (5) I  
R̂zf = nTx Γf1 Rx ΓTf1 Inx Pf
Pf | {z }
This last relation points out that Eq. 4 asymptotically Rx̄
leads to a covariance matrix from which the subspace By construction,
spanned by the columns of the extended observability  
Ržf (t)−Rˇž (t) Ržf žf (t)−Rˇž ˇž (t)
matrix can be extracted. In the following, this covari- f1
R̂zf = Rž ž (t)−Rˇ ˇ (t)
1 1 2 f1 f2
Rž −Rˇ (t)
ance matrix will be denoted as R̂zf . In practice, the f2 f1 žf žf
2 1 f2 žf
2

sample covariance matrix is updated via the recursive Thus,

formulation h R i
x̄ Rx̄ Pf
PT PT =
R̂zf (t) = λR̂zf (t − 1) + žf (t)žTf (t) − ˇ
žf (t)ˇ
žTf (t). (6) f Rx̄

f Rx̄ Pf

Ržf (t)−Rˇž (t) Ržf ž (t)−Rˇž ˇ (t)
1 f1 1 f2 f1 žf2
Ržf žf (t)−Rˇž ˇž (t) Ržf −Rˇž (t) .
Recursive estimation of the observability matrix 2 1 f2 f1 2 f2

The second step of the recursive subspace identifica-

This relation shows that the propagator can be esti-
tion methods considered in this paper consists in on-
mated by minimising the following cost function
line estimating a basis of the observability subspace.
 
The estimation algorithm proposed in the following is ¯ f (t)) =
J(P R̂žf2 žf1 (t) − R̂ˇžf2 ˇžf1 (t)
based on the adaptation of a particular array signal
  2
processing technique: the propagator method (Munier
−PTf (t) R̂žf1 (t) − R̂ˇžf1 (t) .

& Delisle, 1991). This technique has the advantage of F
 The 19th International Symposium on Transport Phenomena
17-21 August, 2008, Reykjavik, ICELAND

1
Indeed, by assuming that the involved inverse matri-

Real part of the eigenvlues

ces exist (see (Mercère & Lovera, 2007) for conditions 0.99

of invertibility), its minimising argument is given by 0.98

  0.97

P̂Tf (t) = R̂žf2 žf1 (t) − R̂ˇžf ˇžf (t) 0.96

2 1
 −1 0.95
R̂žf1 (t) − R̂ˇžf1 (t) . (7)
0.94

An RLS-based algorithm can be developed to recur- 0.93

sively estimate this optimum. The algorithm intro- 0.92 Clean period←→Fouling

duced in Table 1 and named RPM2 summarises the 0.91

computational steps of the recursive formulation of 7. Sample #

0.9
0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6
5
x 10
Build Lf (0), L (0) and PT
f (0) suitably, e.g. from parts of the ident. mat.
f
for t = 1, . . .
 
1 L (t − 1)žf1 (t)žT
f1 (t)Lf (t − 1) Fig. 5.: Real part of the eigenvalues during the period
Lf (t) =  L (t − 1) − f 
λ f λ + žT
f (t)L (t − 1)žf1 (t) analyzed.
1 f
Lf (t)ˇ žf1 T (t)Lf (t)
žf1 (t)ˇ
L (t) = Lf (t) +
f 1−ˇ ž T (t)Lf (t)ˇ žf1 (t)
 f1 
T
Pf (t) =
T
Pf (t
T T
− 1) + žf2 (t) − Pf (t − 1)žf1 (t) žf1 (t)Lf (t) Remark 1 It is important to notice that the proposed
 
− ˇ T
žf1 (t) ˇ
žf2 (t) − Pf (t − 1)ˇ T
žf1 (t)L (t) recursive subspace identification algorithm can give
f
end biased estimates when the input is noisy (Mercère,
et al., 2008). Although this is the case in the practical
Table 3.: The RPM2 algorithm. example considered in this communication (see the
inputs on Fig. 1), this feature is not at all a drawback
for the trend change detection. Indeed, the estimated
APPLICATION TO THE HEAT EXCHANGER eigenvalues used for the detection are numerically ro-
The afore presented technique is applied to the identi- bust. Some new developments are in progress to deal
fication of the heat exchanger. Fig. 4 shows the evolu- with such experimental conditions.
tion of the real part of the eigenvalues of the A matrix.
FOULING DETECTION
1
Once the eigenvalues (their real parts) are known, it is
Real part of the eigenvlues

0.9
possible to apply a simple statistical test to detect foul-
0.8 ing. Indeed, the drift is clearly seen in Fig. 5. The data
0.7
are analysed using the Cusum test (see e.g. (Navidi,
2006)).
0.6
This test has been preferred to the Shewhart test
0.5
due to the fact that it is more sensitive to small shifts,
0.4 as stated in (NIST / SEMATECH, 2006). It is defined
0.3 as follows
0.2 Clean period←→Fouling
Cush (k) = max (0, v̄ − v̄ref − gσ + Cush (k − 1))
0.1

Sample # Cusl (k) = max (0, v̄ref − v̄ − gσ + Cusl (k − 1)) .

0
0 2 4 6
Fig. 4.: Global view of the evolution of the real part of
the eigenvalues.
It can be seen that an initialization period is needed.
This is equivalent to the stabilization period needed
when using the extended Kalman filter (see (Jonsson,
et al., 2007)). It has been decided to take account
of the clean period for a duration (before fouling) as
long as the fouling period. In this case, it can be seen
that the eigenvalues are stable during this clean pe-
riod (as expected) and that one eigenvalue evolves in
accordance with fouling (Fig. 5)
8 10 12 14 16 18
4
x 10
If Cush (k) > hσ or Cusl (k) > hσ, then the drift is
detected. Fig. 6 shows the values obtained.
The reference mean value and the standard devia-
tion are computed over the whole clean period. If g
and/or h are too low, false alarms are encountered. If
they are too high, the drift is not detected.
Fig. 6 shows the evolution of the Cush function ver-
sus the dimensionless time, for the clean period and
for the fouling period. It also shows (as an example)
the detection using g = 3 and hσ = 10.
In this case the detection occurs at a dimensionless
time is close to 0.697. This corresponds to a fouling
factor of 0.00011947.
It is possible to determine the fouling factor as a
 The 19th International Symposium on Transport Phenomena
17-21 August, 2008, Reykjavik, ICELAND

350
proach will be more particularly considered to get pa-
Cus_h

300
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