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HVAC Equipment, Unitary: Fault Detection and Diagnosis

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HVAC Equipment, Unitary: Fault Detection and Diagnosis

Huojun Yang
Ningbo Polytechnic, Ningbo, China
Tian Zhang
Haorong Li
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska, U.S.A.
Denchai Woradechjumroen
Xiaoyu Liu
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska, U.S.A.

Abstract
Fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) plays an increasingly important role in the operation and maintenance
of heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) equipment. California’s 2013 Title 24 building energy
code, effective from January 1, 2014, requires an FDD system on all newly installed air-cooled unitary
direct-expansion units with an economizer and mechanical cooling capacity larger than 4.5 tons. This entry
provides an overview of FDD technique and practice as applied to unitary HVAC equipment such as
rooftop units (RTUs) and split systems, including the introduction of unitary HVAC equipment, descrip-
tion of common faults in unitary HVAC equipment, elements of FDD process, fundamental FDD methods,
and the factors in selecting a specific FDD method in unitary HVAC equipment.

INTRODUCTION diagnose faults that may go unnoticed by equipment oper-

ators between applications of routine maintenance and by
Energy consumption by heating, ventilation, and air- maintenance technicians during the process of mainte-
conditioning (HVAC) systems in buildings is a key con- nance. The benefits of fault detection, diagnosis, and
HVAC–Hybrid

tributor to total global energy consumption. HVAC energy
consumption in buildings accounts for roughly 40% of
the total building energy consumption and 14–16% of
the total worldwide energy consumption. Furthermore,
unitary HVAC equipment such as packaged rooftop
units (RTUs), extensively used in commercial building
cooling and heating (especially for small- and medium-
sized commercial buildings), consumes about 60% of
the total cooling energy in the U.S. commercial build-
ing segment.
However, poorly maintained, degraded, and improperly
controlled equipment wastes an estimated 15–30% of
energy used in commercial buildings.[1] Maintenance for
unitary HVAC equipment is a rare preventative practice,
and these units are prone to faults. Generally, service calls
are most often driven by emergency response for major
system failures such as occupant complaints (e.g.,
complete loss of cooling). Even in the case of scheduled
seasonally preventive maintenance, technicians will only
detect obvious and/or severe faults, and only the routine
qualitative assessments are typically focused on. This
means that nonemergency faults can go unnoticed for
years, which in turn make buildings cause significant
energy waste and bad indoor environment quality and/or
reduce equipment lifetime.
Fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) technologies
applied to HVAC equipment systems primarily detect and
correction may include improved efficiency, adequate
capacity, reduced energy consumption, minimized equip-
ment downtime, low service costs, extended equipment
lifetime, improved indoor environmental conditions,
or all.
Unitary HVAC equipment, especially for RTUs com-
monly used in small- and medium-sized commercial
buildings and split systems in residential buildings, is an
excellent candidate for FDD purpose. On the one hand,
there are such a large number of these systems in use, and
a specific FDD tool can be used for many similar HVAC
units. This will improve the tool’s cost-to-benefit ratio and
thereby allow the use of more expensive sensors to
empower the tool. On the other hand, these systems tend
to have a higher incidence of faults and receive less inten-
sive maintenance compared to larger HVAC systems.[2]
Unlike large HVAC systems with dedicated building oper-
ators who are responsible for daily operation and mainte-
nance, RTUs are typically installed in buildings whose
owners are more cost sensitive and tend to have limited
budgets for operation and troubleshooting problems.[3]
Although the automated FDD in HVAC&R systems is
not well developed like in critical applications such as
nuclear power plants, aircraft, chemical process plants,
and the automobile industry, several FDD tools have been
developed over the past 15 years.[4–7] There are also a few
commercial FDD products being marketed by several

Encyclopedia of Energy Engineering and Technology, Second Edition DOI: 10.1081/E-EEE2-120051345

854 Copyright © 2015 by Taylor & Francis. All rights reserved.
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HVAC Equipment, Unitary: Fault Detection and Diagnosis
commercial entities, and the development status of various
third-party FDD systems was outlined and compared by
PECI and Taylor Engineering.[8] Moreover, California’s
2013 Title 24 building energy code requires an FDD sys-
tem on newly installed unitary DX air conditioners with an
economizer and mechanical cooling capacity larger than
4.5 tons, and the mandatory requirement will become
effective on January 1, 2014.
Therefore, this entry provides an overview of FDD
technique and practice as applied to unitary HVAC
equipment such as RTUs and split systems, including the
introduction of unitary HVAC equipment, description of
common faults in unitary HVAC equipment, elements of
FDD process (measurements, fault detection, fault diagno-
sis methods, fault evaluation, and decision and action),
fundamental FDD methods, and the factors in selecting a
specific FDD method in unitary HVAC equipment.
UNITARY HVAC EQUIPMENT
According to the ASHRAE handbook,[9] unitary air
conditioners are factory-made assemblies that normally
include an evaporator or cooling coil and a compressor/
condenser combination and possibly provide heating as
well. A unitary air conditioner or heat hump with more
than one factory-made assembly (e.g., indoor and outdoor
units) is commonly called a split system, while indoor and
outdoor units are often put together in one factory-made
assembly in packaged RTUs.
Unitary equipment is divided into three general catego-
ries: residential, light commercial, and commercial. Resi-
dential equipment is single-phase unitary equipment with
a cooling capacity of 65 kBtu/hr (5.4 tons) or less and is
designed specifically for residential application. Light
commercial equipment is generally three phase, with
cooling capacity up to 135 kBtu/hr (11.3 tons), and is
designed for small businesses and commercial properties.
Commercial unitary equipment has cooling capacity
OAT, CFMCond
Condenser
Heat
rejection
Expansion
valve
Cooling
capacity
Evaporator
ETdb, ETwb, CFM
855
higher than 135 kBtu/hr (11.3 tons) and is designed for
large commercial buildings. Smaller systems are rated
using Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Insti-
tute (AHRI) standard 210/240, while the larger systems
are rated using AHRI 340/360.
Packaged RTUs are usually installed on the roof of a
small commercial building with all cooling and ventilation
system components (evaporator, compressor, condenser,
and air handler) in one enclosure. The capacity of RTU
systems typically ranges from 3 to 20 tons, although a
system can be as large as 60 tons. Split systems are
primarily used for residences and very small commercial
spaces. These systems place condensers and compressors
outdoor, and evaporators and supply fans indoor. Split
systems commonly have a capacity of less than 5.4 tons.
The cooling function in unitary HVAC equipment is
commonly served by the compression refrigerating cycle,
as shown in Fig. 1. The heating function can be achieved
by the combustion of gas (e.g., in a RTU) or the cooling
circuit cycle (e.g., in a split system). When the same
refrigerating cycle works for both heating and cooling
modes, there is a reversing valve to switch the indoor heat
exchanger as the evaporator (in cooling mode) or the con-
denser (in the heating mode).
In Fig. 1, the four major components of the cooling
system with their outputs (e.g., heat rejection and cooling
capacity) are displayed within the dashed line, and the
cooling capacity is represented using the total cooling
capacity (Q̇ T) and the sensible cooling capacity (Q̇S). The
HVAC–Hybrid
area outside the dashed box for a designed, installed, and
operational rooftop cooling system represents the system’s
input variables, including the outside air temperature
(OAT) and the airflow rate at the condenser side
(CFMCond); dry-bulb temperature (ETdb), wet-bulb tem-
perature (ETwb), and flow rate (CFM) of air entering evap-
orator; and the voltage and current (v and I). In Fig. 1, (v,I)
are assumed to change insignificantly under steady condi-
tions. In addition, CFMCond is also assumed to only
slightly influence the system cooling capacity when the
n
Compressor
I
Power
Fig. 1 Simplified cooling system for a unitary
HVAC unit.
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856
ETdb
Input
ETwb Cooling
system
CFM
OAT
Fig. 2 Relationship between inputs and outputs of a simplified
cooling system.
system runs at various operational conditions. Thus,
the effects of CFMCond, v, I may be considered negligible.
The inputs and outputs for a simplified cooling system are
shown in Fig. 2.
COMMON FAULTS IN UNITARY HVAC UNIT
Many buildings fail to fulfill their technical potential in
terms of the thermal comfort, indoor environmental qual-
ity, energy consumption, and equipment lifetime. A major
cause of this underperformance is that HVAC equipment
has operational faults and problems that often go
undetected, especially when their major impact is on
energy consumption. These faults and problems arise from
poor design, poor installation, lack of functional commis-
sioning, poor maintenance, and an inability of FDD on the
part of building operators and/or service technicians.
Although most unitary HVAC units are mass produced
HVAC–Hybrid
without any design faults or product defects before instal-
lation, faults can be introduced during installation or can
develop over the operating life of the unit.
Generally, faults in unitary HVAC systems can be
divided into two categories: abrupt faults (also called hard
faults) and degradation faults (or soft faults). Abrupt faults
happen abruptly without advance warning from conven-
tional sensors and either cause the system to stop function-
ing or not meet comfort conditions. Many hard faults
frequently occur and are expensive, such as compressor
70%
60%
% Units tested with problem
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Refrigerant Economizer
circuit
HVAC Equipment, Unitary: Fault Detection and Diagnosis
QT
•
failure and electrical faults. Degradation faults evolve
Output undetected over time, becoming progressively more
Qs
•
severe, until they start to create serious comfort problems.
These faults cause a degradation in performance but allow
SHR
continued operation of the system. For example, there are
faulty control (e.g., nonoptimal set point), wrong opera-
tion schedule (i.e., the actual schedule deviates from the
intended one), and typical hardware faults including
dampers, dirty/clogged filters and coils, incorrect refriger-
ant charges, and drifted sensors. Therefore, soft faults can
not only result in large energy waste but also shorten
equipment life and cause later catastrophic equipment
failure.
Hyvärinen and Kärki[10] identified common faults for
various types of HVAC&R systems including heat pump
through the Annex 25 study commissioned by the Interna-
tional Energy Agency (IEA). Breuker and Braun[11] also
investigated different common faults artificially intro-
duced in a RTU and their impact on energy efficiency with
the COP evaluated. There are many common faults that
significantly reduce RTU efficiency, and the New Build-
ings Institute summarizes the research results that describe
the prevalence of different fault types in RTUs, as shown
in Fig. 3.
According to the California Energy Commission’s Pub-
lic Interest Energy Research Program (PIER), 10 common
faults are considered and described in Table 1 with the
causes and effects of each fault.
FAULT DETECTION AND DIAGNOSIS PROCESS
Since the first FDD systems, portable devices used by
service technicians in the course of maintaining and
servicing the vapor compression cooling equipment (e.g.,
chillers) appeared for HVAC&R applications; some sim-
pler and cheaper FDD tools have been recently developed
for unitary HVAC equipment. These FDD systems and
tools share a generic automated FDD process shown in
Airflow Thermostat Sensors Fig. 3 Prevalence of various fault types
in RTUs.
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HVAC Equipment, Unitary: Fault Detection and Diagnosis 857

Table 1 Ten common faults in RTUs.

No Fault name Fault description Causes of fault Effects of fault
1 Air temperature sensor Damage, disconnected Energy inefficiency, e.g., failing to
failure wiring, or miscalibration actuate an economizer when outside
of sensors. air can provide free cooling.
2 Suboptimal refrigerant Improper refrigerant Improper installation and service Decreased efficiency, e.g.,
charge charge; one of the most practices; refrigerant leaks in the undercharge 20% lower than the
common faults in RTUs. circuit and valves nominal amount can result in a 15%
efficiency degradation.
3 Low airflow Low supply airflow. Not appropriately commissioned fan Significantly reduced cooling
speed; airflow restriction such as a capacity and increased compressor
blocked coil, dirty filter, major point power if airflow below 300 cfm/
of resistance in the air distribution nominal-ton. Enough low airflow
system could cause an evaporator coil to
ice, allow liquid refrigerant to pass
through the compressor, and result
in short cycling of the compressor.
4 Heat exchange problems Low airflow through the Generally by coil blockage or fan Incomplete refrigerant vaporization;
evaporator or condenser failure liquid flooding the compressor
coil. which wastes energy and may
damage the compressor.
5 Refrigerant line Noncondensable Leaks; failing to completely The system operates less efficiently
contaminants contaminants such as air evacuate refrigerant lines when because heat transfer surface is
and water vapor are charging equipment reduced, and compression power
introduced into a increases.
refrigerant circuit.
6 Refrigerant line Flow constriction due to Dirty suction filters, fouled Reduced cooling capacity from
restrictions reduced refrigerant flow; increased
blockage in the refrigerant expansion devices, dirty liquid line
line. compressor power since additional
filter/dryers, a joint partly filled with
pressure drop must be overcome;
solder, or physical damage resulting
evaporator coil freezing due to a
in bent or crimped refrigerant lines
larger than normal vapor expansion

HVAC–Hybrid
pressure drop. Reduced EER by
56% due to liquid line restriction,
while by 25% from other
restrictions.
7 Compressor short cycling Repeated run times Coil blockage, equipment Significantly decreased average
shorter than 3 minutes. oversizing, and poor thermostat efficiency (up to 10% efficiency
location penalty); early equipment failures
since the undue cycling impacts
several components adversely.
8 Suboptimal economizer Set points are not selected Missed economizer cooling; heating
set point correctly. and cooling energy will increase
significantly when a set point is
higher than recommended or when
an outside air damper is stuck open.
9 Economizer damper Often, economizers fail to Motor failure, link failure, or Significant energy inefficiency:
failure actuate at all. jammed damper blade either because of an undue addition
of heating and cooling load when
stuck open or a missed opportunity
for free cooling when a damper is
stuck closed.
10 Excess outside air Economizer damper stuck open; a Energy penalty due to additional
system commissioned with a higher heating and cooling load.
than necessary ventilation rate

Fig. 4; similar process descriptions have been provided by detection, fault diagnosis, and process recovery, where
Rossi and Braun.[4] In Fig. 4, the typical operation and fault diagnosis includes fault identification and fault isola-
maintenance process using automated FDD can be viewed tion, and process recovery is involved with fault evalua-
as a series of three distinct functional procedures, i.e., fault tion, decision, and action.
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858
Measurement
Unitary HVAC equipment
No fault
Fault detection
Fault
Fault diagnosis
Fault evaluation
Safety
Availability
Cost
Energy/cost
Comfort
Environmental
impacts
Fig. 4 Generic procedure of FDD to unitary HVAC equipment.
The first step in the FDD process is generally referred
to as fault detection, to monitor the HVAC equipment or
HVAC–Hybrid
components and detect any abnormal conditions (prob-
lems). When an abnormal condition is detected, fault diag-
nosis is used to evaluate the fault and determine its causes.
The sequencing of the detection and diagnosis varies. In
some cases, the detection system runs continuously, while
the diagnosis system is triggered only upon the detection
of a fault. In other applications, the detection and diagno-
sis systems run in parallel, and even in some instances, the
detection and diagnosis are performed in a single step and
no distinct separate classification is necessary. Following
the fault detection and fault diagnosis, process recovery
will assess the size and significance of the impact on
system performance (in terms of energy use, cost, avail-
ability, or effects on other performance indicators) and
then make a decision on how to respond to the fault (e.g.,
by taking a corrective action or possibly even no action)
and take actions. Whenever a fault occurs, the fault detec-
tion, fault diagnosis, and process recovery procedures are
employed in their respective sequence, so the in-control
operations can often be recovered by reconfiguring the
process, repairing the process, or retuning the controllers;
otherwise, only the fault detection procedure is repeated.
However, once a fault has been properly diagnosed, the
optimal approach to counteract the fault may not be obvi-
ous, or a feasible approach may be to retune the standard
process controllers. The following will address the details
of these steps.
HVAC Equipment, Unitary: Fault Detection and Diagnosis
No action
required
Process Recovery
Decision and action
Yes
No
Tolerate? Maintenance
or repair
No
Yes Reconfigure
Reconfigure
controls? the controls
Yes
No
Continue to Alarm/shut
operate? down
The measurements are indispensable in the FDD pro-
cess. They are compared with generic expectations (i.e.,
the values of normal operation for a specific equipment)
from different models so problems can be identified and
diagnosed. Often, the measurements from thermofluid
sensors are widely utilized in the FDD tools for HVAC
equipment. Yoshimura and Ito[12] employed pressure and
temperature measurements to detect problems with
condenser, evaporator, compressor, expansion valve, and
refrigerant charge on a RTU system. Yang and Li[7] used
alone the in situ temperature sensors to detect and diag-
nose the problems related to RTUs’ cooling efficiency
such as low charge and dirty coil fouling, and the FDD
protocols with low cost and high accuracy have been suc-
cessfully implemented in commercial buildings. Both of
the studies presented earlier estimated the expected mea-
surements based on manufacturers’ data. Moreover, the
electrical measurements, e.g., the nonintrusive load moni-
toring (NILM) by sampling voltage and current at high
rates, were used to detect and diagnose equipment and
component faults associated with rooftop cooling units. It
is based on the fact that[13] compiled 15,716 failure
records for air-conditioning and refrigeration equipment
and attributed 76% of faults to electrical components.
Armstrong et al.[5] argued that the use of NILM for FDD
is important because 1) it complements other FDD
schemes that are based on thermofluid sensors and ana-
lyses and 2) it is minimally intrusive (one measuring point
in the relatively protected confines of the control panel)
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HVAC Equipment, Unitary: Fault Detection and Diagnosis
and therefore inherently reliable. Also, vibration sensors
could be utilized to detect and diagnose mechanical prob-
lems eventually leading to failure. The expectations are
typically expressed in terms of dominant frequencies for
specific sensor locations and types of equipment. Sig-
nificant differences between measured and expected
frequency contents can indicate specific mechanical
problems.
Fault detection is the process of determining whether a
fault has occurred in the system. Early detection may
provide invaluable warning on emerging problems, with
appropriate actions taken to avoid serious process
upsets.[14] Fault detection is accomplished by comparing
performance determined from measurements with some
expectation of performance. If the deviation exceeds a
threshold, then a fault is indicated. Often, this process is
divided into two steps as depicted in Fig. 5: preprocessing
and classification. The preprocessor takes measurements
from sensors and manipulates them to generate features
for classification. The classifier then operates on the fea-
tures to determine whether the system contains a fault.
Simple transformations, characteristic quantities, and
models are three types of preprocessors that have been
employed.[15] Simple transformations involve manipula-
tions of the raw data, such as trend generation (i.e., time
derivatives). Characteristic quantities, obtained directly
from the computation of measurements, are indicative fea-
tures of component performance. Examples include over-
all system efficiencies and heat exchanger effectiveness.
Model-based preprocessors utilize mathematical models
of the monitored system to generate features, and they
can be further categorized in terms of the types of perfor-
mance indices generated for classification, the types of
dynamics considered, and the structure of the model. Each
categorization is described as follows. First, performance
indices or features generated by model-based preproces-
sors include innovations (differences between measured
and predicted values), physical parameters of the model,
and characteristic quantities (partly depending on inputs).
Second, process model structure can be divided into phys-
ical model, black box model, and gray box model, and
these models will be further described in the next part.
Third, model dynamics has steady-state models, linear
dynamic models, and nonlinear dynamic models. The use
of steady-state models requires that the FDD method have
a steady-state detector to evaluate when the FDDP method
is applicable, although transients are often neglected in
models. State space representations have been used to
track systems whose dynamics are nearly linear. In some
cases, neither steady-state nor linear dynamic approaches
are valid and nonlinear dynamic models are employed.
Measurements Features
Preprocessor Classifier
Fig. 5 Sequential steps in FDD.
859
In a broad sense, the fault detection classifier is an
expert system. The knowledge necessary to make a fault
decision can be stored in a number of forms, including a
set of production rules (i.e., IF-ELSE rules), a fault tree,
and conditional probabilities for statistical pattern recog-
nition classifiers. Typically, it is necessary to assign the
thresholds for deviations between current and normal per-
formance that constitute faults. In selecting thresholds,
there is a trade-off between detection sensitivities and
false alarm rates. Tighter thresholds result in greater sen-
sitivities (detection of smaller faults), but will lead to more
false alarms (an indication of a fault that does not exist).
The thresholds for allowable deviations can be established
by evaluating the statistical properties of the measure-
ments and how well the model for normal operation fits
the measurements. However, thresholds are often deter-
mined based upon heuristics, although better performance
(lower ratio of false alarms to correct diagnoses) is
achieved when statistical thresholds are employed.
In general, preprocessing simplifies the classification
and improves overall performance of the fault detection
system. In the absence of any preprocessing, the fault
detection system is a classic expert system, and the whole
fault detection is then based upon rules that act directly on
the measurements.
Fault diagnosis is defined as determining which fault
occurred, where, when, and how, in other words, deter-
mining the cause, the type, the location, the time, and the
magnitude of the observed out-of-control status.[16] Fault
HVAC–Hybrid
diagnosis is commonly divided into two stages, fault iden-
tification and fault isolation, and then it is also called FDI
in some literatures. Fault identification is identifying the
observation variables most relevant to diagnosing the
fault. The purpose of this procedure is to focus the plant
operator’s and engineer’s attention on the subsystems
most pertinent to the diagnosis of the fault, so that the
effect of the fault can be eliminated in a more efficient
manner. Fault isolation involves isolating the specific fault
that occurred, including determining the kind of fault, the
location of the fault, and the time of detection. (In some
literatures, fault isolation is also defined as only determin-
ing the exact location of the fault or faulty component, i.e.,
to determine which component is faulty.) Thus, fault iso-
lation provides more information than a fault identifica-
tion procedure, but it often requires a large number of
measurements. In some systems, fault diagnosis may be
completed only by fault isolation, without fault identifica-
tion process. The fault diagnosis procedure is essential to
the counteraction or elimination of the fault.
Fig. 5 can also be used to describe both fault identifica-
tion and fault isolation of fault diagnosis. Measurements
are processed in order to simplify the classification
Decisions required to identify the particular observation variables or
other details of faults. The overall classification problem
in fault diagnosis is different from fault detection, or
more complex than fault detection, in that fault diagnosis
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860
generally needs more measurements, and the decision in
fault diagnosis is not binary (i.e., fault/no fault): the diag-
nosis classifier must determine the specific choices from a
list of possibilities. When sufficient data are available for
training, neural network and other black box approaches
can learn patterns for normal and faulty behavior and
provide direct classification of raw measurements. Never-
theless, a more common diagnostic approach is the one
that requires fewer measurements with the use of fault
models. For each type of fault to be diagnosed, a fault
model predicts the outputs associated with the occurrence
of that fault for a current set of inputs, and it is necessary
to have fault models for each fault and combinations of
faults. Statistical pattern recognition techniques are often
employed for finding the best matching fault model. Fur-
thermore, a diagnosis problem can be reduced to a series
of binary decision problems as fault detection through
isolation process (e.g., some researchers have utilized
decoupled methods to diagnosis multiple simultaneous
faults[17]), so that fault diagnosis becomes more simple,
clear, and effective.
Process recovery, also called intervention, is removing
the effect of the fault, and it is the procedure needed to
close the process monitoring loop. As described in Fig. 4,
process recovery includes fault evaluation, decision, and
action. Fault evaluation is a process of assessing the
impacts of diagnosed faults or future faults on system
performance in order to provide data for making decisions
as to which faults should be serviced and when and how.
HVAC–Hybrid
Without this step, the fault must become obvious enough
to justify the expense of servicing the unit, or it may lead
to a disaster. Process recovery generally depends on the
different application specifics and their respective empiri-
cal models, and each type of fault in the system needs to
be introduced separately to generate a specific process
FDD Methods
Black box
Gray box
(data driven)
Artificial Other pattern
Statistical neural recognition
networks techniques
Casual
analysis
Fig. 6 Taxonomy scheme for FDD methods.
HVAC Equipment, Unitary: Fault Detection and Diagnosis
recovery. Literature indicates that little has been published
on the fault evaluation, decision, and action stages of the
overall FDD process. Process recovery will not be further
discussed because it is not the focus of this entry.
FUNDAMENTAL FDD METHODS
As shown in Fig. 5, the basic building blocks of FDD
systems are preprocessors and classifiers, and criteria or
thresholds need to be defined for establishing or outputting
appropriate results/decisions for each block (e.g., fault or
fault-free, and the type and cause of fault). There are a
wide array of approaches used to FDD, and each approach
may be used for both of the two steps, except that each
method has its own proficiency in them. Therefore, from a
methodology point of view, these methods will be catego-
rized not by fault detection or fault diagnosis, but by
the differences between themselves. Although there are
various classifications in the related literature, the follow-
ing taxonomy in Fig. 6 for FDD methods, loosely from
the classification scheme employed by Katipamula
and Brambley[1] and Venkatasubramanian et al.,[18–20] is
employed here to highlight the driving source of methods,
i.e., data driven or a priori knowledge based.
Fig. 6 indicates that FDD methods include three cate-
gories: black box (data driven), gray box, and a priori
knowledge based, where gray box is a mix of black box
and a priori knowledge base. All of these three approaches
use not only data but also models, but their driving bases
or sources differ fundamentally. A priori knowledge-based
approaches entirely use a priori knowledge (e.g., first
principles) to specify a model that serves as the basis for
identifying and evaluating differences (or residuals)
between the actual operating states determined from
A priori knowledge
based
Rule Physical
based model
Expert Limits and Quantitative Qualitative
systems alarms physics-based physics-based
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HVAC Equipment, Unitary: Fault Detection and Diagnosis
measurements and the expected operating state and values
of characteristics obtained from the model. Purely process
data-driven approaches (i.e., methods based on black box
models), instead, completely empirically derive behavioral
models only from measurement data of the process itself,
not from a priori knowledge of the process. However, the
models of black box approaches require much more data
for training than those based upon physical laws and may
not extrapolate well. For gray box approaches, the con-
struction and configuration of models are based on both a
priori knowledge and process data. A priori knowledge-
based approaches consist of rule-based approaches (which
will be further classified as expert systems, casual analysis,
and limits and alarms) and physical model approaches
(which will be further subdivided into quantitative
physics-based and qualitative physics-based approaches).
Data-driven approaches can be further classified as being
associated with three categories, namely, statistically
derived approaches (e.g., regression), artificial neural net-
works (ANNs), and other pattern recognition techniques.
The data-driven measures are derived directly and
solely from process data (or process history), and a large
amount of historical data are required. There are a large
amount of collected data that allow more data-driven
methods to be better utilized for FDD purposes due to the
great developments in data communication, computing,
and data visualization technologies along with decreasing
costs of sensors, actuators, and controllers. Data-driven
methods are found widely used in both detecting and diag-
nosing faults.
In black box (data-driven) models, both inputs and out-
puts are known and measured. The main objective of a
data-driven model is to mathematically relate measured
inputs to measured outputs, and there are a number of
ways to transform the input and output data. This process
of transformation is also known as feature extraction or
parameter extraction, and the model features or parame-
ters have no physical significance in black box models.
Various statistical and nonstatistical methods are used to
develop the relationship between inputs and outputs.
Some examples of statistical methods include linear
regression (LR) and multiple regression (MLR), polyno-
mial regression, principle component analysis (PCA),
partial least squares (PLS), and logistic regression. By
comparing some meaningful statistics for the process
operators and engineers, a process monitoring scheme
can be improved significantly in HVAC equipment. Rossi
and Braun[4] and Breuker and Braun[21] based a complete
FDD system on seven black box steady-state models using
MLR for RTU equipment in the laboratory. Nonstatistical
methods include ANNs and other pattern recognition
methods such as fuzzy logic (FL). Lo et al.[22] used a
fuzzy-generic algorithm for automatic fault detection in
HVAC system, and Parvaresh et al.[23] proposed an FDD
method in HVAC equipment based on soft computing
approach.
861
The strength of data-driven techniques is their ability to
transform the high-dimensional data into a lower dimen-
sion, in which the important information is captured. They
are easy to develop and do not require an understanding of
the physics of the system being modeled, and a wealth of
documented information is available on the underlying
mathematical methods. The main drawback of data-driven
measures is that their proficiency is highly dependent on
the quantity and quality of the process data. Most models
cannot be used to extrapolate beyond the range of the
training data.
A priori knowledge of the process (e.g., first principles),
not data on which the data-driven models are based, is
assumed to construct the models in a priori knowledge-
based approaches. A priori knowledge can be from
physics based as well as rule based. Physical models,
whose parameters and structures have some physical
significance, are sets of mathematical relationships or
knowledge based on the underlying physics of the pro-
cesses, and they can be both quantitative and qualitative
models. Physical models can also be steady state, linear
dynamic, or nonlinear dynamic. An accurate physical
model is capable of extrapolating performance expecta-
tions well in case of limited training data. However, it is
difficult and expensive to develop an accurate physical
model for some complicated components, not to mention
the whole system. On the other hand, rule-based
approaches use a set of if-then-else rules and an inference
mechanism that searches through the rule space to draw
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conclusions. For rule-based systems where there may be
no underlying principles from physics, three categories are
further distinguished among those based on rules of casual
analysis, or expert rules (i.e., expert systems), and or sim-
ple limit checks (which serve as the basis for alarms). The
boundary between rule-based models and physical models
can become blurred for some approaches, but this distinc-
tion is useful to classify a priori knowledge.
The physical model approach is applicable to informa-
tion-rich systems, where satisfactory models and enough
sensors are available. Most physical model measures are
based on parameter estimation, observer-based design,
and/or parity relations, and their applications are more
effective with a relatively small number of inputs, outputs,
and states. The simplified physical models were used to
detect faults in a heat pump in the laboratory (e.g., Wagner
and Shoureshi[24]). However, the rule-based approach uses
predetermined rule models to develop process monitoring
measures and is especially well suited for systems where
detailed mathematical models are unavailable. Like the
physics-based approach, most applications of the rule-
based approach have been used to systems with a
relatively small number of inputs, outputs, and states.
Software packages are being developed to enable the
rule-based approach to be more easily applied to complex
systems. Rule-based reasoning methods are widely used
for fault diagnosis[25,26] developed an embedded expert
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862
Table 2 Rules for diagnosing faults in RTUs.
Fault Tevap Tsh
Refrigerant leak # "
Compressor valve leakage " #
Liquid line restriction # "
Condenser fouling " #
Evaporator fouling # #
system for monitoring packaged HVAC equipment. A sta-
tistical, rule-based classifier in Table 2 was performed to
diagnose the five faults by Rossi and Braun.[4] The arrows
in Table 2 indicate whether a particular measurement
increases (") or decreases (#) in response to a particular
fault at steady-state conditions.
Gray box, from a view of structure point, is actually a
mix of black box approach and a priori knowledge-based
approach. Gray box models (also referred to as an empir-
ical or mechanistic model) generally use a priori knowl-
edge (e.g., first principles and engineering knowledge) to
specify the mathematical or rule form in the model but for
which parameters (such as coefficients in the model) are
determined from process data. In general, these models
have a simple form and are, therefore, easy to use. Gray
box models have a great potential for FDD and online
control applications in HVAC equipment because they
have advantages of both black box and a priori knowl-
edge-based approach. However, they require a high level
of user expertise both in formulating the appropriate
model form (a thorough understanding of the system and
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expertise in statistics) and in estimating model parameters.
Model parameters (e.g., coefficients) of a gray box
model often have physical significance and are estimated
using linear or multiple LRs from measured inputs and
outputs. These estimates tend to be more robust than those
from black box models, which can lead to better model
predictions. However, for these estimates to be meaning-
ful and robust, measurement errors should be minimized
because small uncertainties in measured data can result in
relatively large changes in the physical parameters.[27]
Although gray box models often require more time and
effort to develop and apply compared to black box
approaches, the prediction accuracy is generally higher
than for black box models.
Each specific FDD technique has its strengths and
limitations, and combination of various methods is com-
monly a better solution to a real application. It is highly
unlikely that all faults occurring in a process can be
effectively detected and diagnosed with only a few mea-
sures, although faults are manifested in several ways.
Since each measure characterizes a fault in a different
manner, one measure will be more sensitive to certain
faults and less sensitive to other faults relative to other
measures. This motivates using multiple process moni-
toring measures, with the proficiency of each measure
determined for the particular process and the possible
faults at hand.
HVAC Equipment, Unitary: Fault Detection and Diagnosis
Tcond Tsc Thg ΔTca ΔTea
# # " # #
# # " # #
# " " # #
" # " " #
# # # # "
SELECTION OF FDD METHODS
Eventhough most FDD methods reported in the literature
perform more than adequately in the laboratory or simula-
tion setting, not many of them work well in the field
implementation. The following discusses several aspects
for properly selecting FDD methods in the development of
the FDD system.
It is necessary to understand the anticipated faults
before selecting specific methods for detection and diag-
nosis. For a given set of inputs and outputs, both a set of
fault models and a technique for selecting the fault models
may be also needed. Often, the selection of a diagnostic
method is more difficult than that of the detection. It is
because that faults may exhibit different symptoms at
different times and be intermittent. In addition, multiple
simultaneous faults make diagnosing the causes of faults
even more difficult.
The selection of a method for both detection and diag-
nosis heavily depends on the amount of measured data
collected. Less measured data will more rely on the selec-
tion of a detailed physical model for detection. However,
physical models may require more physical information of
a system, such as its physical characteristics and design
details. On the other hand, a limited set of measured data
may lead to difficulty in isolating causes of faults.
Also, the selected methods are influenced by the cost of
development and deployment of an FDD system. The
building industry is highly cost sensitive, and generally,
life safety in buildings is not a major issue, so most build-
ing HVAC&R systems will have a limited set of sensors
required for control purposes only. Therefore, the cost of
additional sensors for FDD purposes should be considered
in order to ensure that the additional value compensates
for any cost increase. Cheaper sensors in the future will
allow for the installation of more sensors in building
systems, and more FDD methods are available for the
reliable and highly efficient operation of unitary HVAC
equipment.
CONCLUSION
After introducing the unitary HVAC equipment, we have
described its common faults during operation, including
hard and soft faults, the prevalence of different fault types,
and the description, cause, and effect of each fault. Then,
the elements of FDD process have been discussed:
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HVAC Equipment, Unitary: Fault Detection and Diagnosis 863

measurement, fault detection, fault diagnosis, and process
recovery. In general, most common FDD measurements in
unitary HVAC equipment are from thermofluid sensors.
Electrical measurement is increasingly becoming impor-
tant because 76% of faults in unitary HVAC equipment
are attributed to electrical components, and this measure-
ment is minimally intrusive and therefore inherently reli-
able. Fault detection and fault diagnosis share the basic
building blocks of FDD systems: preprocessors and
classifiers.
A classification scheme for FDD methods is provided
here with each approach’s strengths and weakness identi-
fied. In terms of the driving source of methods, there are
three main groups: black box (data-driven) methods, a
priori knowledge-based methods, and gray box methods.
Each group has various subclasses. Data-driven methods
are widely used in both detecting and diagnosing faults in
unitary HVAC equipment. Simplified physical models and
limits and alarms are often used for detection, while rule-
based methods for fault diagnosis. Gray box models have
a great potential for FDD in HVAC equipment because
they combine advantages of both black box and a priori
knowledge-based approach.
Finally, several factors in selecting FDD methods have
been discussed: understanding a fault itself, available
measured data, and cost.
NOMENCLATURE
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