Analysis of Propagation of Errors Due to Sensor Faults in a Flow Process for Design of Fault Isolation

This paper presents a design of fault isolation technique for a flow control loop. Loop performance is analyzed while the sensors are faulty. The objective of the paper is to understand effect of orifice faults like open circuit fault, short circuit fault, and assertive faults on the output of flow process. On analyzing the effect of faults, a fault isolation system is designed which is placed in cascade to the process so as to limit effect of sensor faults on the process. Fault tolerant system is designed using regression analysis like support vector machine. The designed regression/fault tolerant vector is connected in cascade to the controller to produce outputs which is independent of sensor faults. The fault tolerant system is also designed to identify the faults in sensors. The results of the designed system show successful implementation of proposed technique.