Annals of Nuclear Energy 164 (2021) 108616

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Annals of Nuclear Energy

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/anucene

Energy-based fault detection and isolation of a Brayton cycle-based

HTGR power conversion unit – A comparative study
H. Neser a, G. van Schoor b, K.R. Uren a,⇑
a
School of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa
b
Unit for Energy and Technology Systems, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The amount of data associated with condition monitoring of large scale industrial plants has led to a ‘‘big
Received 19 April 2021 data problem”. Energy-based fault detection and isolation (FDI) has been proposed as a hybrid FDI
Received in revised form 14 June 2021 method to reduce data requirements and improve FDI performance. In this paper, a comparative study
Accepted 1 August 2021
is performed on three energy-based FDI techniques, namely: an enthalpy–entropy error-based technique,
Available online 10 August 2021
a residual-based technique and an eigendecomposition-based technique. A representative Brayton cycle-
based power conversion unit (PCU) is considered as the case study and simulated under normal and fault
Keywords:
conditions. From the simulation data, the PCU is represented in terms of energy, either as an enthalpy–
Energy
Exergy
entropy diagram or an attributed graph. The graph representation allows structural information to be
Fault diagnosis captured which contributes towards fault isolation capability. For each FDI technique, operational energy
Brayton cycle signatures are compared to normal and fault reference energy signatures to detect and isolate fault con-
Energy-based FDI ditions. This paper contributes by comparing the FDI techniques based on the attributes of quick detec-
Attributed graphs tion and isolation. The residual-based technique had the best performance in detecting and isolating
faults. The results also indicate that a combination of techniques will result in an FDI technique with
improved detection and isolation performance over the individual techniques.
Ó 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction complex industrial system. Model-free approaches can further be

In the work of Ma and Jiang (2011) the importance of fault
detection and diagnosis (FDD) in nuclear power industries is high-
lighted. The authors envisaged that these methods would help to
improve safety, reliability, and availability of modern nuclear
power plants (NPPs). There is also an increasing drive to operate
nuclear power plants more cost-effectively. This implies the need
to deal with system faults effectively.
The high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) is a nuclear
reactor type with internationally-recognized inherent safety, high
power generation efficiency and wide application. This type of
reactor is easily adaptable using different gases for driving the
Brayton cycle in a power conversion unit, and is also suitable for
small modular reactor applications (Bae et al., 2015). Even though
these types of reactors are inherently safe, key subsystems such as
the power conversion unit (PCU) still need monitoring. Two main
types of FDD approaches can be distinguished, namely: model-
based and model-free. Applied model-based approaches are
limited due to the challenge of acquiring an accurate model of a
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: kenny.uren@nwu.ac.za (K.R. Uren).
classified into data-driven (multi-variate) methods and signal-
based (univariate) methods. Data-driven methods capitalise on
relationships between correlated measurements within a system
and are particularly favoured in industry due to the availability
of this kind of data. However, the amount of data available in mod-
ern plants can quickly turn into what is called a ‘‘big data
problem”.
In order to address this type of problem a hybrid approach can
be followed which strikes a balance between data-driven and
model-based approaches in the sense that process knowledge is
combined with process measurements. This approach is also moti-
vated by Severson et al. (2016) stating that successful future FDD
techniques will most likely be hybrid techniques that will draw
on strengths of various techniques. In an attempt to simplify the
models and reduce the amount of data required, energy-based
FDI methods have been proposed. The advantage of an energy-
based method is that energy is a multi-domain parameter in con-
trast with process parameters which are domain-specific. From
an energy perspective, a plant can be presented with varying
degrees of complexity. At a low-detail level, the plant can be
viewed as a simple energy-in, energy-out system. At a high-
detail level, individual processes or components can be included

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2021.108616
0306-4549/Ó 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
H. Neser, G. van Schoor and K.R. Uren
to form a more detailed representation of the plant. The use of
energy can be seen as a hybrid approach for FDI, combining data-
driven and model-based methods. Also, the use of graphs allows
structural information and attributes to be associated with specific
locations in the actual system being considered. This structural
property may contribute significantly in terms of fault isolation.
A number of studies have been conducted using energy as a
basis for FDI. Some of these studies implement residual generators
based on energy balances (Berton and Hodouin, 2003; Theilliol
et al., 2006; Chen, 2011). Faults are defined according to their dif-
ferent influences on system energies. Fault detection is then car-
ried out by checking the validity of the energy balances.
Valero et al. (2004a,b) follow a thermoeconomic diagnosis
approach that belongs to the field of thermodynamic monitoring.
The general objective is the detection of efficiency deviation, its
economic worth and location of its main causes. The thermoeco-
nomic diagnosis approach makes use of exergy analysis since it
better accounts for energy losses in an energy system. Exergy
information and structural information are implemented in matrix
format for diagnosis purposes. George et al. (2010) also imple-
mented an exergetic analysis as a means towards fault diagnosis
of a chiller system. The technique was evaluated using actual plant
data and was able to reveal locations of inefficiencies which can
typically be associated with faults. The successful implementation
of exergy analysis for FDI on gas-to-liquids processes also exist.
The papers by Marais et al. (2017) and Greyling et al. (2019)
demonstrates the advantage of using exergy parameters in
graph-based fault detection schemes. This approach allows chem-
ical and thermo-fluid domains to be incorporated in the FDI
scheme intuitively.
du Rand et al. (2009) and du Rand and van Schoor (2012a,b)
adopted the application of an enthalpy–entropy ðh  sÞ diagram
approach for fault detection (FD) in the power conversion unit of
a closed Brayton cycle HTGR. The ðh  sÞ diagram was used to char-
acterize the process from a thermodynamic perspective. A pattern
recognition methodology was followed where fault patterns (sig-
natures) based on the comparison between actual plant diagrams
and reference diagrams are used. A natural progression from the
work of du Rand et al. (2009) is exploring the feasibility of imple-
menting energy-based FDI methods on other thermodynamic sys-
tems as well as energy conversion plants in general. In van Schoor
and Uren (2018) a foundation is laid for implementing energy-
based FDI methods on different thermodynamic systems.
Based on the literature review presented, the use of energy as a
multi-domain process parameter for the purpose of data reduction
and FDI in large scale industrial plants shows merit. In this paper,
two attributed graph-based techniques are considered to represent
the operating conditions of a Brayton cycle-based PCU i.e. the
residual technique and the eigendecomposition technique. Graph
matching techniques are then implemented for the purpose of
FDI. These two techniques are then compared to the technique pro-
posed by du Rand and van Schoor (2012a) and evaluated based on
the attributes of an effective FDD method pertaining to FDI, as
defined in the work of Venkatasubramanian et al. (2003). The con-
tribution of this paper lies not only in the introduction and appli-
cation of the two energy graph-based techniques to the PCU of
the Brayton cycle but also in the comparison of its FDI performance
to previous work. The comparison of the techniques is based on the
attributes of quick detection and isolation.
This paper is organised as follows. In Section 2 the energy-based
approach followed in this study is described. The Brayton cycle
PCU is explained in Section 3 and the energy characterisation of
the cycle is presented in Section 4. In Section 5, energy-based FDI
methods are implemented and the results are presented and dis-
cussed in section 6. The paper is concluded in Section 7.
2
Annals of Nuclear Energy 164 (2021) 108616
2. Energy-based approach to FDI
In this paper, three energy-based FDI techniques are compared
based on attributes associated with an effective FDI technique. The
approach followed in this paper to detect and isolate fault condi-
tions is illustrated in Fig. 1.
The required process parameters (enthalpy (h) and entropy (s))
are obtained from a validated and representative model of a Bray-
ton cycle PCU developed and simulated using FlownexÒ. FlownexÒ
simulation software allows for accurate and reliable modelling of
fluid flow and heat transfer systems. The researchers have access
to FlownexÒ since FlownexÒ has its roots from within the North-
West University. The enthalpy and entropy data are used to char-
acterise the PCU. Two methods are proposed to characterise the
PCU in terms of energy namely an h-s diagram and an attributed
graph. The energy characteristics of the PCU are compared to the
energy characteristics of the PCU under normal operating condi-
tions and an energy-based operational signature is compiled. The
operational signature is then compared to reference signatures
compiled for normal and fault conditions. If the operational signa-
ture does not match the reference signature for the normal condi-
tion, a fault has been detected. Once a fault has been detected the
operational signature is compared to the reference fault signature
in order to isolate the fault.
The operational signatures obtained from using ideal data (vari-
ation free) for normal and fault conditions will serve as the refer-
ence signatures. In contrast with simulated data, actual measured
data are subject to variations in plant and sensor measurements.
In order to simulate the effect of variation, random variation is
added to the simulated enthalpy and entropy data. Multiple realis-
tic data sets are generated with random variation added to the data
for the various operating conditions (normal and fault conditions)
of the PCU. The operational signatures obtained from the realistic
data are compared to the reference fault signatures to detect and
isolate the fault conditions.
In the case of the h-s diagram method, the operational signa-
tures are determined using an enthalpy–entropy error technique
(du Rand and van Schoor, 2012a) while for the attributed graph
method, a residual-based technique and an eigendecomposition-
based technique are implemented.
The proposed techniques will be compared based on the attri-
butes of an effective FDD technique as defined by
Venkatasubramanian et al. (2003). In this paper, the quick detec-
tion and isolability attributes will be evaluated as it is applicable
to FDI. Quick detection refers to the minimum fault magnitude that
can be detected and isolability refers to the ability to differentiate
between different fault conditions.
3. System description
In this section, the Brayton cycle PCU considered in this paper,
as well as the simulation model, the validation of the model and
the fault conditions are discussed. A reduced complexity Brayton
cycle PCU is considered for the purpose of the comparative study
with only the basic Brayton cycle element included.
3.1. Brayton cycle PCU
The closed-loop Brayton cycle used as the case study is shown
in Fig. 2. The cycle consists of a compressor, a heat-addition ele-
ment, a compressor turbine (CT), a power turbine (PT) and a
heat-rejection element. The heat-addition and -rejection are
achieved by means of heat exchangers. In this cycle, low-
temperature and -pressure working fluid (simulated as
H. Neser, G. van Schoor and K.R. Uren Annals of Nuclear Energy 164 (2021) 108616

Fig. 1. Energy-based FDI approach flow diagram.

Fig. 2. Basic Brayton cycle PCU.

single-phase air) is compressed through the compressor before

thermal energy is added through the heat-addition element. The
high-temperature and -pressure working fluid expands through
the CT, producing rotational energy driving the compressor. The
working fluid is further expanded through the PT, producing a
net work (W) output. The high temperature, low pressure working
fluid passes through a heat-rejection element, reducing the tem-
perature to its initial condition before the working fluid re-enters
the compressor and the cycle repeats.
The FlownexÒ simulation environment used in this study
enables the simulation and study of thermodynamic systems.
The FlownexÒ model of the PCU (as presented in Fig. 2) is shown
in Fig. 3. In this simulation, the output of the PT is determined
by the pressure of the working fluid at node-1. Increasing the pres-
sure, with the addition of working fluid, increases the mass flow in
the cycle, increasing the output of the PT. Reducing the pressure,
by extracting working fluid, has the opposite effect, reducing the
output of the PT. The temperature of the working fluid at node-3
is kept constant at 1173.15 K by controlling the heat transfer in
the heat-addition element. Similarly, the heat-rejection element
maintains a temperature of 298.15 K at node-1.
Fig. 3. FlownexÒ simulation model of the Brayton cycle PCU.
The following assumptions are made regarding the PCU
simulation:
 Only steady-state conditions are considered,
 The simulated data are considered variation-free,1
 Potential and kinetic energies are ignored,2
 The reference temperature (T 0 ) is taken as 298.15 K,
 The reference pressure (P 0 ) is taken as 101.1 kPa.
1
The effects of process and sensor variation in real systems are not considered as
part of the simulation. The numerical variation in the simulation was determined to
be insignificant and therefore ignored.
2
This refers to macroscopic energy and does not form part of the thermodynamic
analysis of the Brayton cycle PCU.

3
H. Neser, G. van Schoor and K.R. Uren Annals of Nuclear Energy 164 (2021) 108616

Table 1 Table 3
Simulated process parameters at each node. Comparison between the calculated and simulated power consumption for each
component in the PCU.
Node T (K) P (kPa) h (kJ/kg) s (kJ/kgK)
Calculated power (kW) Simulated power (kW) Error (%)
1 298.15 267.76 424.15 3.60
2 461.52 874.83 589.49 3.71 Compressor 225.40 227.58 0.96
3 1173.15 872.28 1373.59 4.73 Heat-addition 1078.49 1078.92 0.04
4 1027.89 397.32 1204.87 4.80 CT 233.85 232.22 0.69
5 964.25 274.10 1132.22 4.83 PT 100.90 100 0.89
Heat- 973.67 974.59 0.09
rejection
Table 2
Simulated power consumption of each component.

Component Power (kW) Table 4

Compressor 227.58 List of fault conditions.
Heat-addition 1078.92 Component Fault ID Effect of fault
CT 232.22
PT 100 Compressor Fault-1 Increase in pressure ratio
Heat-rejection 974.59 Fault-2 Decrease in efficiency
PT Fault-3 Decrease in pressure ratio
Heat transfer elements Fault-4 Heat loss in heat-addition element
3.2. Simulation results Fault-5 Pressure drop in heat-rejection element

The PCU is simulated with the output of the PT controlled at

100 kW, resulting in a mass flow of 1.376 kg/s. The process param-
eters for the fault-free steady-state operating conditions are given
in Table 1. The temperature and pressure will be used to validate
the cycle and the specific enthalpy and entropy to calculate the
change in the energy and exergy across each component in the
cycle. The power consumption3 of each component in the cycle is
shown in Table 2. These operating conditions will be considered as
normal operating conditions and serve as reference conditions.
3.3. Validation
The basic Brayton cycle shown in Fig. 3 is only a representative
model in terms of the temperature and pressure behaviour of the
PCU. The behaviour of the representative model and that of a val-
idated complex model4 as used in a PBMR (van Niekerk et al., 2003;
Rousseau et al., xxxx) are shown in Fig. 4. The behaviour of both
models is shown for an increase and decrease in the normal operat-
ing setpoint of the cycle. The exact temperature and pressure at the
different nodes will not match as the layout and operating condi-
tions of the two models differ but the behaviour is the same for
changes in the normal operating point.
The representative model was further validated by comparing
the calculated and simulated power consumption of each compo-
nent in the representative model. The calculated and simulated
power consumption under normal steady-state conditions are
shown in Table 3. The percentage difference (error) between the
calculated and simulated power consumption is also indicated.
Based on the fact that the temperature and pressure behaviour
of the representative and complex models are similar, the repre-
sentative model is assumed to be an accurate representation of a
Brayton cycle PCU. The small error (less than 1%) between the cal-
culated and simulated power consumption for each component
further validates the representative model.
3.4. Faults
The faults simulated are based on the work of du Rand and van
Schoor (2012a) and listed in Table 4. From the simulation, the max-
3
The sign convention used is that of the International Union of Pure and Applied
Chemistry (IUPAC) and considers all net transfers to the system as positive and all net
transfers from the system as negative.
4
The nodes in the complex PBMR model correspond with the nodes in the basic
model.
imum fault magnitude was determined to be 10 %. A fault magni-
tude greater than 10 % resulted in the turbomachinery operating
outside of its operating capabilities and unable to maintain a PT
output of 100 kW.
Fault-1 to Fault-3 are related to the turbomachinery. The per-
formance of turbomachinery is based on two performance maps,
composed of the pressure ratio and the isentropic efficiency. These
maps are unique to each turbomachine. Both maps express the
pressure ratio and isentropic efficiency as a function of the cor-
rected mass flow for various corrected speed curves. Using scaling
factors to change the pressure ratio and isentropic efficiencies, the
performance of the turbomachine can be varied to simulate a fault.
Fault-4 represents a fault in the heat-addition element, simulated
as a heat loss. Fault-5 represents a pressure drop across the ele-
ment, influencing the heat transfer.
Based on the simulated process variables under normal and
fault conditions, the PCU can be characterised and represented in
terms of energy. The energy characterisation will be used to detect
and isolate faults in the PCU.
4. Energy characterisation
In the case of thermodynamic systems such as the Brayton cycle
PCU, the PCU can be represented in terms of energy and its associ-
ated properties, exergy and entropy. The energy of a thermody-
namic system consists of macroscopic- and microscopy-energy.
In this context macroscopic energy refers to the kinetic and poten-
tial energy of the working fluid. Compared to the microscopic
energy, the effect of the macroscopic energy in a thermodynamic
cycle is negligible and therefore ignored. The microscopic energy
refers to the molecular structure and interaction of the working
fluid. In this study, specific values are used and expressed as a
function of the mass of the working fluid. The specific enthalpy is
the sum of all microscopic energies and expressed as
h ¼ u þ pv ; ð1Þ
where u is the internal energy, p the pressure and v the volume. The
specific exergy is calculated based on the chosen reference environ-
ment. Since the reference environment can vary, it is common to
use the change in specific exergy rather than the absolute value.
The change in specific exergy is calculated as
Db ¼ Dh  T 0 Ds; ð2Þ

4
H. Neser, G. van Schoor and K.R. Uren
Fig. 4. Temperature and pressure comparison of the representative and complex Brayton cycle.
where Dh is the change in specific enthalpy, Ds is the change in
specific entropy and T 0 is the reference temperature. The reference
temperature selected in this study is 298.15 K. Exergy is not a con-
served property and the specific exergy destroyed is related to the
change in the specific entropy by
bdest ¼ T 0 Ds:
Exergy is based on the second law of thermodynamics and takes
into account the fact that thermal energy cannot be completely
converted into work, but work can be completely converted into
thermal energy. Three energy-based FDI techniques (illustrated
by Fig. 5) are presented based on two energy-based methods to
represent the Brayton cycle PCU. The two energy-based represen-
tation methods are an h-s diagram and an attributed graph repre-
sentation. The attributed graph approach is again categorised in a
residual- and eigendecomposition-based technique. The FDI tech-
niques are discussed in Section 5.
4.1. h-s diagram of the Brayton cycle PCU
In the work of du Rand and van Schoor (2012a), a Brayton cycle
PCU is represented in terms of enthalpy and entropy. The h-s dia-
gram of the PCU is illustrated in Fig. 6, for normal operating condi-
tions. The compression of the working fluid (node-1 to node-2)
increases the enthalpy of the working fluid, and the addition of
thermal energy (node-2 to node-3) further increases the enthalpy.
The expansion of the working fluid through the turbines (node-3 to
node-5) decreases the enthalpy as work is produced. The heat-
rejection (node-5 to node-1) further reduces the enthalpy to the
initial value. The entropy of the system is always increasing as
defined by the second law of thermodynamics (Cengel and Boles,
2002). Although the entropy of the system reduces through the
heat-rejection (node-5 to node-1), the entropy of the surroundings
(not shown) increases, resulting in a net entropy increase, to com-
ply with the second law of thermodynamics.
Fig. 5. Different energy-based FDI methods.
Annals of Nuclear Energy 164 (2021) 108616
4.2. Attributed graph of the Brayton cycle PCU
In the work of van Schoor and Uren (2018), attributed graphs
are presented as a means to represent a thermodynamic system.
An attributed graph consists of nodes and edges, with each compo-
nent in the cycle being represented as a node and the connections
between components as edges. Attributes are assigned to each
ð3Þ node and edge, to represent the PCU. The node attribute will be
the change in specific exergy flow across the node (Db_ where i is i
the node) and the link attribute will be the specific energy flow
between nodes (e_ ij , where i; j are nodes). The attributed graph of
the PCU is illustrated in Fig. 7.
The additional node, node-6, represents the environment of the
cycle. The total change in specific exergy of the environment is the
sum of the individual changes in the environment due to the inter-
action with the individual components, given as
Db_ 6 ¼ Db_ 6:1 þ Db_ 6:2 þ Db_ 6:3 þ Db_ 6:4 þ Db_ 6:5 : ð4Þ
Each component interacts with the environment and the energy
into or out of the component is sourced from or supplied to the
environment. This explains the omission of the mechanical con-
nection between the compressor and turbine in Fig. 7, since the
energy produced by the turbine is supplied to the environment
and the energy consumed by the compressor is sourced from the
environment. The effect of the mechanical connection (the rota-
tional speed of the compressor and the turbine are equal) is only
used to calculate the energy required by the compressor and the
Fig. 6. h-s diagram of the Brayton cycle PCU.
5
H. Neser, G. van Schoor and K.R. Uren Annals of Nuclear Energy 164 (2021) 108616

Fig. 7. Attributed graph of the Brayton cycle PCU.

net energy produced by the turbine. From the attributed graph an 5. Energy-based FDI
m  n attributed graph matrix (G) is compiled, with m the number
of nodes and n equal to m þ 1. Each row represents the node and In this section three energy-based FDI techniques (refer to
edge attributes of a component, with the node attributes in the Fig. 5) are discussed. The approach followed by the three tech-
first column and the edge attributes in the remaining columns. niques is shown in Fig. 8.
The attributed graph matrix of the attributed graph in Fig. 7 is Enthalpy and entropy data are obtained from the FlownexÒ
given as simulation of the PCU. The simulated data are ideal (without vari-
2 3 ation) while actual measured data will include variations in plant
Db_ 1 0 e_ 12 0 0 e_ 51 e_ 61 and sensor measurements. To generate realistic data, variation
6 _ 7
6 Db2 e_ 12 0 e_ 23 0 0 e_ 62 7 with a Gaussian distribution is added to the ideal data. To emulate
6 7
6 _ 7
6 Db 0 e_ 23 0 e_ 34 0 e_ 36 7 representative process and measurement variation, a worst-case
G¼6 3 7: ð5Þ
6 Db_ 4 0 0 e_ 34 0 e_ 45 e_ 46 7 signal to noise ratio of 41 dB is chosen, in line with typical flow
6 7
6 _ _e51 7 variation in process plants. The ideal data are used to generate ref-
4 Db5 0 0 e_ 45 0 e_ 56 5
erence fault signatures, while operational signatures are generated
Db_ 6 e_ 61 e_ 62 e_ 36 e_ 46 e_ 56 0 from the realistic data. For the purpose of FDI, the normal and fault
Structural information is retained by assigning a negative value conditions are each represented by 10 realistic data sets and one
for an energy flow into a node, while a positive value indicates a ideal data set. A threshold value is implemented to account for
flow out of a node. A zero-entry indicates that no connection (edge) the variation in the realistic data when detecting and isolating fault
exists between the two relevant nodes, for example, g 14 refers to conditions. Since each technique is based on a unique energy rep-
the non-existing connection between node-1 (compressor) and resentation, different threshold values are used by each technique.
node-3 (turbine). The attributed graph matrix for the cycle under The threshold is based on the maximum standard deviation (rÞ in
normal operating conditions is given as the data and explained in the following sections describing each
2 3 technique.
133:03 0 589:49 0 0 424:15 165:34
6 480:55 589:49 0 1373:59 0 0 784:09 7
6 7
6 7
6 189:71 0 1373:59 0 1204:87 0 168:71 7 5.1. Enthalpy–entropy error-based technique
Gref ¼6
6 81:19
7:
6 0 0 1204:87 0 1132:22 72:65 7 7
6 7
4 342:67 424:15 0 0 1132:22 0 708:07 5 This technique is based on the change in the h-s diagram of the
662:57 165:34 784:09 168:71 72:65 708:07 0
PCU. The energy-based signature of the PCU is created by compar-
ð6Þ
ing the reference (ideal data) h-s diagram, created under normal
Based on the energy characterisation of the PCU, three different operating conditions, to the h-s diagram created under actual (re-
energy-based FDI techniques are presented to compile unique sig- alistic data) operating conditions. This technique was used by du
natures for the normal and fault conditions. These techniques are Rand and van Schoor (2012a) and du Rand et al. (2009) for FDI
discussed in the following section. on a Brayton cycle PBMR. The change in the parameters is calcu-

Fig. 8. Flow-diagram for an energy-based approach to FDI.

6
H. Neser, G. van Schoor and K.R. Uren
lated for both the enthalpy and entropy at different nodes in the
cycle. The change is calculated as the error, given by
pref ðiÞ  pact ðiÞ
errðiÞ ¼ for i ¼ 1 to m; ð7Þ
pref ðiÞ
where pref ðiÞ is the value of the normal reference parameter, pact ðiÞ is
the value of the actual parameter, i the node number and m the
number of nodes. Using (7), the same fault condition at different
magnitudes will yield different error values. For the purpose of fault
isolation, the fault magnitude should not influence the error value
and therefore (7) is normalised by
errðiÞ
errn ðiÞ ¼ for i ¼ 1 to m; ð8Þ
maxjerr j
where maxjerrj is the absolute value of the maximum error in the
parameter across all nodes.
The reference signatures are created using ideal data as the
actual parameters in (7). The signatures created using realistic data
(operational signatures) are compared to the reference signatures
to detect and isolate fault conditions. Since different data sets are
used for fault detection (7) and isolation (8), different threshold
values are calculated for detection and isolation.
5.1.1. Fault detection
A fault is detected when the operational signature does not
match the normal reference signature. Under ideal normal condi-
tions, the reference parameters and actual parameters will be
equal and the error calculated from (7) will be zero (this is the nor-
mal reference signature). Using realistic data, (7) will yield random
non-zero error values under normal operating conditions due to
the inclusion of variation in the normal data. To compensate for
the variation in the normal operating conditions, a detection-
threshold is implemented. The detection-threshold value used will
be a compromise between the quick detection of faults and the
correct identification of a normal condition (Venkatasubramanian
et al., 2003). A large detection-threshold will allow for normal
operating conditions with larger variation to be regarded as nor-
mal, but small magnitude faults will also fall within the
detection-threshold and be regarded as normal operating condi-
tions. The detection-threshold value is calculated as a factor of
the maximum standard deviation in the error for all ten realistic
data sets. In this case, the standard deviation for fault detection
was determined to be 0.002.
5.1.2. Fault isolation
Once a fault has been detected, the fault can be isolated using
the normalised error (8). Normalising resulted in similar signatures
for a specific fault regardless of the fault magnitude. The reference
signatures for the different fault conditions are taken as the aver-
age of a 5% and 10% fault magnitude using ideal data. To compen-
sate for the effect variation in the data has on the operational
signature, an isolation-threshold is implemented. The isolation-
threshold value is determined as a factor of the maximum standard
deviation in the normalised error for all faults and fault magni-
tudes. For the h-s based technique, the maximum standard devia-
tion for fault isolation was determined to be 0.822. The large value
is due to the normalisation of the error.
5.2. Residual-based technique
The residual-based technique is based on the difference
between two attributed graph matrices. The attributed graph
matrix compiled for the reference operating conditions (Gref ) and
7
Annals of Nuclear Energy 164 (2021) 108616
the matrix compiled for the actual operating conditions (Gact ) are
compared and an m  n residual graph matrix (Gres ) calculated as
g refi;j  g acti;j i ¼ 1 to m
Gres ¼ ½g resi;j  ¼ for ð9Þ
g refi;j j ¼ 1 to n
where m is the number of nodes and n ¼ m þ 1.
The fault magnitude will influence the residual graph matrix,
calculated using (9), and therefore the residual graph matrix has
to be normalised. The normalised residual graph matrix will only
be dependent on the type of fault. The normalised residual graph
matrix (Gresn ) is calculated by normalising the node and edge attri-
butes. The normalised node attributes are calculated as
g resi;1
g resni;1 ¼ for i ¼ 1 to m; ð10Þ
maxjg resi;1 j
where maxjg resi;1 j is the maximum of the absolute values for the
node attributes (first column in the residual graph matrix). The nor-
malised edge attributes are calculated as
g resi;j i ¼ 1 to m
g resni;j ¼ for ; ð11Þ
maxjg resi;j j j ¼ 2 to n
where maxjg resi;j j is the maximum of the absolute values of all the
edge attributes in the residual graph matrix.
5.2.1. Fault detection
This technique follows the same reasoning as explained in Sec-
tion 5.1.1 for the detection of a fault. The standard deviation for
fault detection (using (9)) was calculated as 0.057.
5.2.2. Fault isolation
This technique follows the same reasoning as explained in Sec-
tion 5.1.2 for the isolation of a fault. The standard deviation for
fault isolation (using (10) and (11)) was calculated as 0.96. The
large value is due to the normalisation of the residual graph matrix.
5.3. Eigendecomposition-based technique
The eigendecomposition-based technique is based on the eigen-
decomposition of cost matrices representing the difference
between two attributed graphs, as implemented in the work of
van Graan et al. (2017). The cost matrix is calculated using the
heterogeneous euclidian overlap method, as presented in the work
of Wilson and Martinez (1997) and Jouili and Tabbone (2009). The
cost matrix describes the difference between two matrices and the
eigendecomposition of the cost matrix is used to describe the cost
matrix. The normalised cost matrix (Cn ) is calculated for the refer-
ence operating conditions (Gref ) and actual operating conditions
(Gact ) as
vffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
u m 
uX Gref ði; aÞ  Gact ðj; aÞ2
Cði; jÞ ¼ t fori; j ¼ 1ton ð12Þ
a¼1
rangea
The value, rangea , is used to normalise the cost matrix, and is
defined as rangea ¼ max a  min a where max a and min a are
respectively the maximum and minimum values in the a-th col-
umn of Gref . Again the normalisation ensures that the fault magni-
tude has no effect on the cost matrix. A normalised reference cost
matrix (Crefn ) is calculated for the reference operating conditions
with Gact ¼ Gref .
The directional changes (e.g. if the value increased or decreased
beyond a threshold value) in the eigendecomposition of Cn are
H. Neser, G. van Schoor and K.R. Uren Annals of Nuclear Energy 164 (2021) 108616

determined compared to that of Crefn . A qualitative fault signature
is compiled for each fault and used for both fault detection and iso-
lation. For the eigendecomposition-based technique, a single
threshold is used. The threshold value is determined as a factor
of the standard deviation in the eigenvalues and eigenvectors.
The maximum standard deviation was calculated to be 0.023. Since
only one data set is used for fault detection and isolation,only one
threshold value is calculated.
6.1. Fault detection
Detecting a fault is a trade-off between the quick detection of
the fault and detecting a normal condition as a fault. A large
detection-threshold value will decrease the amount of normal
operating conditions being detected as a fault condition but will
also decrease the number of faults with small magnitudes being
detected. This is illustrated in the following sections for each
method.

5.4. Attributes of an FDI method 6.1.1. Enthalpy–entropy error-based technique

In order to compare the FDI methods, a set of attributes has to
be identified that an ideal FDI method should exhibit. In the work
of Venkatasubramanian et al. (2003) a set of ten attributes was
identified that an ideal FDD method should exhibit. The two attri-
butes specifically applicable to FDI and used in this paper to com-
pare the FDI techniques are:
Quick detection: This refers to the smallest fault magnitude
that can be detected by the FDI technique.
Isolability: This is the ability of the technique to distinguish
between different fault conditions with varying fault magnitudes.
6. Comparative results and discussion
In this section, the three energy-based FDI techniques are com-
pared, based on each method’s ability to detect and isolate faults.
The standard deviation calculated for the detection and isolation
of faults for each of the three techniques, based on the variation
within ten realistic data sets, are summarised in Table 5. The
threshold values are based on a factor of the standard deviation.
For each technique, the detection and isolation performance was
determined using a factor of 1r; 2r and 3r. The results are pre-
sented in the following sections.
Table 5
Standard deviation values for each FDI technique.
FDI technique Detection
h-s error-based r ¼ 0:002
Residual-based r ¼ 0:057
Eigendecomposition-based r ¼ 0:023
The percentages of realistic normal operating conditions
detected as fault conditions are given in Table 6 at different
detection-threshold values with the standard deviation ðrÞ equal
to 0.002. The fault detection performance is shown in Table 7 using
the same standard deviation value.
As evident from Tables 6 and 7, an increase in the detection-
threshold reduced the number of normal operating conditions
being detected as fault conditions, but the number of faults being
detected at smaller fault magnitudes also decreased. The best
detection performance was obtained with a detection-threshold
value of 2r taking into account that only 10% of normal conditions
were detected as faults.
6.1.2. Residual-based technique
The percentages of realistic normal operating conditions
detected as fault conditions are given in Table 8 at different
detection-threshold values with the standard deviation ðrÞ equal
to 0.057. The fault detection performance is shown in Table 9 using
the same standard deviation value.
As evident from Tables 6 and 7, an increase in the detection-
threshold reduced the number of normal operating conditions
being detected as fault conditions, but the number of faults being
detected at smaller fault magnitudes also decreased. The best
detection performance was obtained with a detection-threshold
value of 1r, allthough 50% of normal conditions were detected as
faults. With higher detection-threshold values none of the normal
conditions were detected as faults, but the fault detection perfor-
Isolation mance reduced significantly.
r ¼ 0:822
r ¼ 0:96 6.1.3. Eigendecomposition-based technique
The percentages of realistic normal operating conditions
detected as fault conditions are given in Table 10 at different

Table 6 Table 8
Percentage of normal operating conditions detected as fault condition (enthalpy– Percentage of normal operating conditions detected as fault condition (residual-based
entropy error-based technique). technique).

Detection-threshold Percentage detected Detection-threshold Percentage detected

1r 90 1r 50
2r 10 2r 0
3r 0 3r 0

Table 7
Percentage of faults detected at different detection-threshold values (enthalpy–entropy error-based technique).

Detection-threshold 1r 2r 3r
Fault Magnitude Magnitude Magnitude
1% 5% 10% 1% 5% 10% 1% 5% 10%
Fault-1 90 100 100 20 40 90 10 10 40
Fault-2 100 100 100 50 100 100 10 100 100
Fault-3 70 100 100 40 100 100 0 100 100
Fault-4 70 90 100 10 10 20 0 0 0
Fault-5 90 90 100 30 30 70 0 0 20

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H. Neser, G. van Schoor and K.R. Uren Annals of Nuclear Energy 164 (2021) 108616

Table 9
Percentage of faults detected at different detection-threshold values (residual-based technique).

Detection-threshold 1r 2r 3r
Fault Magnitude Magnitude Magnitude
1% 5% 10% 1% 5% 10% 1% 5% 10%
Fault-1 30 30 50 0 0 0 0 0 0
Fault-2 60 100 100 0 100 100 0 100 100
Fault-3 40 100 100 0 30 100 0 0 100
Fault-4 30 60 100 0 20 80 0 0 20
Fault-5 40 40 50 0 10 10 0 0 0

detection-threshold values with the standard deviation ðrÞ equal
to 0.023. The fault detection performance is shown in Table 11
using the same standard deviation value.
Regardless of the detection-threshold used, all the faults could
be detected. This result together with the result in Table 10 suggest
that a detection threshold of 3r is ideal, providing a meaningful
compromise between false and missed detection.
6.2. Fault isolation
6.2.1. Enthalpy–entropy error-based technique
The standard deviation used for isolation was calculated to be
0.822. The percentages of faults isolated at different isolation-
threshold values are summarised in Table 12, based on a
detection-threshold of 2r.
Table 10
Percentage of normal operating conditions detected as fault condition (eigendecom-
position-based technique).
Detection-threshold Percentage detected
1r
2r
3r
6.2.2. Residual-based technique
The standard deviation used for isolation was calculated to be
0.96. The percentages of faults isolated at different isolation-
threshold values are summarised in Table 13, based on a
detection-threshold of 1r.
6.2.3. Eigendecomposition-based technique
The standard deviation used for isolation was calculated to be
0.023. The percentages of faults isolated at different isolation-
threshold values are summarised in Table 14, based on a
detection-threshold of 3r.
As evident from Tables 12 and 13, the percentage of faults iso-
lated increased with an increase in the isolation-threshold. As the
threshold increases, the uniqueness of the isolation decreases. This
implies that a fault can be isolated to more than one reference fault
signature. To address this, Venkatasubramanian et al. (2003)
defined a third attribute, called a classification error estimate. This
attribute can be used to indicate how confident the technique is
with the isolation of the fault. This can be useful when a fault is iso-
lated to multiple fault signatures by indicating the likelihood that
it is a specific fault. This attribute does not form part of this paper
and will be investigated in future work. The eigendecomposition-
based technique did not perform well in isolating faults regardless
40 of the isolation-threshold used. Small variations in the data
20 resulted in different eigendecompositions, resulting in the quick
0
detection of faults but reduced isolation of faults.

Table 11
Percentage of faults detected at different detection-threshold values (eigendecomposition-based technique).

Detection-threshold 1r 2r 3r
Fault Magnitude Magnitude Magnitude
1% 5% 10% 1% 5% 10% 1% 5% 10%
Fault-1 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
Fault-2 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
Fault-3 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
Fault-4 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
Fault-5 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Table 12
Percentage of faults isolated at different isolation-threshold values (enthalpy–entropy error-based technique).

Isolation-threshold 1r 2r 3r
Fault Magnitude Magnitude Magnitude
1% 5% 10% 1% 5% 10% 1% 5% 10%
Fault-1 0 10 80 20 30 90 20 40 90
Fault-2 10 100 100 50 100 100 50 100 100
Fault-3 0 80 20 40 100 100 40 100 100
Fault-4 0 0 0 10 10 20 10 10 20
Fault-5 0 10 20 30 20 60 30 30 70

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H. Neser, G. van Schoor and K.R. Uren Annals of Nuclear Energy 164 (2021) 108616

Table 13
Percentage of faults isolated at different isolation-threshold values (residual-based technique).

Isolation-threshold 1r 2r 3r
Fault Magnitude Magnitude Magnitude
1% 5% 10% 1% 5% 10% 1% 5% 10%
Fault-1 20 20 40 30 30 50 30 30 50
Fault-2 0 100 100 50 100 100 60 100 100
Fault-3 10 100 100 40 100 100 40 100 100
Fault-4 10 30 70 20 60 100 30 60 100
Fault-5 0 20 30 40 30 50 40 40 50

Table 14
Percentage of faults isolated at different isolation-threshold values (eigendecomposition-based technique).

Isolation-threshold 1r 2r 3r
Fault Magnitude Magnitude Magnitude
1% 5% 10% 1% 5% 10% 1% 5% 10%
Fault-1 10 40 40 20 50 50 20 50 50
Fault-2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Fault-3 10 0 30 40 0 50 40 0 50
Fault-4 0 0 0 20 0 0 20 0 0
Fault-5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

7. Conclusion
All three energy-based FDI techniques presented in this paper
were able to detect and isolate faults with varying fault magni-
tudes. The detection performance of each technique is influenced
by the detection-threshold used and is a trade-off between quick
detection and incorrectly detecting a normal condition as a fault.
The isolation performance was also influenced by the isolation-
threshold used. Based on the results, the residual-based technique
was the best performing individual technique, outperforming the
enthalpy–entropy error-based technique and
eigendecomposition-based technique in terms of detection and
isolation performance. The result also showed that the
eigendecomposition-based technique has the best detection per-
formance while the residual-based technique has the best isolation
performance. Based on the results it is concluded that a combina-
tion of the residual-based and eigendecomposition-based tech-
niques will have an improved detection and isolation
performance compared to the individual techniques. Future work
will include techniques to uniquely isolate faults and quantify
the confidence (classification error estimate) in the isolation of
the fault.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
H. Neser: Investigation, Writing - original draft, Software. G.
van Schoor: Conceptualization, Writing - review & editing. K.R.
Uren: Conceptualization, Writing - review & editing.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
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