Grey Box Fault Detection in Heat Exchanger Networks

Abstract

Abstract A grey box model-based method for fault diagnosis is proposed in this paper which is based on a first principle model of the process unit: a heat exchanger, and on a grey box model of the fault: the deterioration of the heat transfer surface by aging. Under normal operating conditions the heat transfer coefficient is constant or slowly decreasing due to a layer of settled material building up on the heat transfer surface, and we propose to use a recursive least squares estimator with forgetting factor to track the heat transfer coefficients during these stages. In old heat exchangers, big chunks of the settled material can break away from the surface causing the heat transfer coefficients to rise sharply. This fault is detected via detection of abrupt positive jump in the estimated heat transfer coefficients using a Hinkley detector