A nonlinear process monitoring strategy with a 2-phase fault diagnosis approach

Abstract

The article delves into the development of Statistical Fault Detection and Diagnosis Strategies for an Integrated Steel Plant (ISP) taking into account the nonlinear relationship amongst the monitored Process and Feedstock Characteristics. The strategies being devised is based on Neural Network Fitting model cum Principal Component Analysis based technique (NNF-PCA) and Kernel Principal Component Analysis (KPCA) based technique. For detection of fault(s) Hotelling T2 chart based on (Principal Component Analysis) PCA and KPCA scores were employed and an ensemble strategy amalgamating KPCA and Self Organizing Map neural network has also been proposed for the detection of the out-of-control observations or faults. The article also proposes a 2-phase Fault Diagnosis approach christened as Preliminary Diagnosis phase and Specific Diagnosis phase. The Preliminary Diagnosis phase is based on Pattern Analysis of the control chart monitoring statistic observations and the Specific Diagnosis phase is based on the employment of appropriate Fault Diagnostic Statistic. The Preliminary Diagnosis reveals the broader source of assignable cause for the onset of the fault(s) and the Specific Diagnosis reveals the relative contribution of the individual Process and Feedstock characteristics. An in-depth comparative analysis between the NNF-PCA based strategy and KPCA based strategy w.r.t. three comparative aspects and four comparative parameters were carried out with their findings being duly highlighted which revealed the slight effectiveness of the KPCA based strategy with respect to the NNF-PCA based counterpart.