Sensor location with respect to fault tolerance properties

Abstract

This paper deals with the sensor location of non-linear systems with respect to fault tolerance properties. Non-linear observability and individual observability indices are introduced and used to build minimal and redundant sensor sets. These sets are organised into an oriented graph which contains all the possible reconfiguration paths for which the estimated variables remain observable. The evaluation of fault tolerance is based on fault tolerance properties: a structural and a probabilistic criteria, for which observability properties remain satisfied. The developed methodology is applied to a steam generator installation which represents complex non-linear system widely used in process engineering.