Component Failure Detection via State Estimation

Abstract

Component failure detection and location (CFD) is of great importance in any complex technical system. With the increasing efficiency of computers it becomes feasible to apply failure detection schemes which use functional redundancy - where redundant signals are generated by state estimators - instead of hardware redundancy. In this paper an attempt is made to solve the problem of location of failures of components in a complex system by means of state estimation using dedicated observer schemes. The given complex system has to be decomposed into two categories of functional components. A particular scheme of decentralized observers is used in the case of components, whose interacting signals are all available. For the second category of components, Whose interacting signals are unknown, two different app roaches a represented : A decentralized observer scheme and a bank of observers for order - reduced models. In the general case the two detection schemes can be combined to give a scheme of hierarchically decentralized observers. The resulting scheme is ap p lied to detect and locate component fail ures in the primary circulation of a pressurized water reactor. Some results of digital simulations illustrate the efficiency and the limits of the methods presented.