Unknown input observer design for fault detection and diagnosis in a continuous stirred-tank reactor

¹ School of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
² Centre of Hydrogen Energy, Institute of Future Energy, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

^* Corresponding author: arshad@utm.my

Abstract

Early and accurate fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) minimises downtime, increases the safety and reliability of plant operation, and reduces manufacturing costs. This paper presents a robust FDD strategy for a nonlinear system using a bank of unknown input observers (UIO). The approach is based on structure residual generation that provides not only decoupling of faults from model uncertainties and unknown input disturbance but also decoupling the effect of a fault from the effects of other faults. The generated residual was evaluated through the statistical threshold to avoid fault missing or false alarm. The performance of the robust FDD scheme was assessed by some sensor fault scenarios created in a continuous stirred-tank reactor (CSTR). The simulation result showed the effectiveness of the proposed approach.