Process facility monitor using fuzzy logic
First Claim
1. A method for monitoring operation of a process facility comprising the steps of:
- (a) storing at least one planned sequence of hypothesized plant states using multi-valued logic to define calculation of a congruence factor for each of the hypothesized plant states;
wherein said storing in step (a) includes storing relationships between the multi-valued logic variables defined by a maximum value function when any of the multi-valued logic variables in a first relationship may be true and defined by an average function when all of the multi-valued logic variables in a second relationship are expected to be true;
(b) converting data representing the process facility into values of multi-valued logic variables;
wherein said converting in step (b) assigns to the multi-valued logic variables numerical values corresponding to likelihood of truth;
(c) calculating the congruence factor from the multi-valued logic for each of the hypothesized plant states in step (a) in the at least one planned sequence using the multi-valued logic variables; and
(d) identifying a current plant state by comparing the congruence factor of each of the hypothesized plant states to each other and choosing the plant state having the highest congruency factor.
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Abstract
A method for monitoring operation of a process facility comprising the steps of storing at least one planned sequence of hypothesized plant states using multi-valued logic to define calculation of a congruence factor for each of the hypothesized plant states; wherein said storing step includes storing relationships between the multi-valued logic variables defined by a maximum value function when any of the multi-valued logic variables in a first relationship may be true and defined by an average function when all of the multi-valued logic variables in a second relationship are expected to be true; converting data from the process facility into values of multi-valued logic variables; wherein said converting step assigns to the multi-valued logic variables numerical values corresponding to likelihood of truth; calculating the congruence factor for each of the hypothesized plant states in the at least one planned sequence using the multi-valued logic variables; and identifying a current plant state by comparing the congruence factor of each of the hypothesized plant states based and selecting the state having the highest congruency factor.
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Citations
17 Claims
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1. A method for monitoring operation of a process facility comprising the steps of:
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(a) storing at least one planned sequence of hypothesized plant states using multi-valued logic to define calculation of a congruence factor for each of the hypothesized plant states;
wherein said storing in step (a) includes storing relationships between the multi-valued logic variables defined by a maximum value function when any of the multi-valued logic variables in a first relationship may be true and defined by an average function when all of the multi-valued logic variables in a second relationship are expected to be true;(b) converting data representing the process facility into values of multi-valued logic variables;
wherein said converting in step (b) assigns to the multi-valued logic variables numerical values corresponding to likelihood of truth;(c) calculating the congruence factor from the multi-valued logic for each of the hypothesized plant states in step (a) in the at least one planned sequence using the multi-valued logic variables; and (d) identifying a current plant state by comparing the congruence factor of each of the hypothesized plant states to each other and choosing the plant state having the highest congruency factor. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A monitoring system for an electrical power generating plant comprising:
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a storage unit to store planned sequences of hypothesized plant states, each plant state defined by a congruence factor calculated using multi-valued logic; a data acquisition and conversion system to repeatedly obtain plant data and convert the hypothesized plant data representing the electrical power generating station into multi-valued logic variables; a processor to determine at least one current sequence as likely in progress from among the planned sequences stored in said storage unit, to calculate the congruence factor from the multi-valued logic for each hypothesized plant state in each of the at least one current sequence and to identify a current plant state for each of the at least one current sequence based on a highest congruence factor;
wherein said processor determines the at least one current sequence as having entrance conditions evaluated as true and exit conditions evaluated as false, wherein true and false are each defined as a range of values in the multi-valued logic; anda display unit to display information about the current plant state in dependence upon the values of the multi-valued logic variables regardless of whether the information is used to identify the current plant state.
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Specification