System apparatus and method for diagnosing a flow system
First Claim
1. A method for diagnosing a flow system of components, the flow system having at least a status signal indicative of the status of a component, comprising the steps of:
- receiving said status signal in an instrumentation and control database;
comparing said status signal with limit values;
setting a status signal by generating;
an alarm signal;
an alarm, if the status signal is outside the range of the limit values;
oran event;
outputting said status signal from said instrumentation and control database;
receiving said status signal in a diagnostic apparatus;
storing said status signal in a data storage device;
detecting at least one change in said status signal;
controlling by means of a control unit said service function dependent on selectable or predetermined information; and
starting by means of said control unit at least one service function generating status information based on said status signal and dependent on a functional model of said flow system and on a set of predetermined rules describing the relationship between components of said flow systems;
wherein the step of generating status information comprises the steps of;
searching for a cause to a changed alarm among the other functions in a network of said functional model, associated with alarm signals;
indicating the alarm signal as secondary, if the alarm signal for a function is caused by another function in the network, otherwise indicating the alarm signal as primary;
propagating causal effects to other functions in the network, if the alarm signal is indicated as primary;
propagating alarm signals to connected functions of conditional relations, if the goal connected to the network has conditional relations; and
repeating the step of searching for a cause to a changed alarm for each function where the alarm signals changes due to the propagation rules.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention deals with diagnosing of a flow system, using status signals carrying information about said flow system, whereby new status information is generated, which relates to a plurality of aspects of the flow system based on said status signals and dependent on a functional model and on a set of predetermined rules. The invention comprises a diagnostic apparatus (20) arranged to analyze the status signals for example by means of an alarm analyzer (23a) arranged to separate alarms into primary and secondary alarms, a sensor fault detector (23b) arranged to detect sensor values that probably are wrong or a fault diagnozer (23c) arranged to find the root causes for unfulfilled goals. Further the invention can comprise a failure mode analyzer (23d) arranged to detect functions that can stop working in the future or a process measurement analyzer (23e) arranged to analyze the status signals of a specific process.
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Citations
28 Claims
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1. A method for diagnosing a flow system of components, the flow system having at least a status signal indicative of the status of a component, comprising the steps of:
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receiving said status signal in an instrumentation and control database; comparing said status signal with limit values; setting a status signal by generating; an alarm signal; an alarm, if the status signal is outside the range of the limit values;
oran event; outputting said status signal from said instrumentation and control database; receiving said status signal in a diagnostic apparatus; storing said status signal in a data storage device; detecting at least one change in said status signal; controlling by means of a control unit said service function dependent on selectable or predetermined information; and starting by means of said control unit at least one service function generating status information based on said status signal and dependent on a functional model of said flow system and on a set of predetermined rules describing the relationship between components of said flow systems; wherein the step of generating status information comprises the steps of; searching for a cause to a changed alarm among the other functions in a network of said functional model, associated with alarm signals; indicating the alarm signal as secondary, if the alarm signal for a function is caused by another function in the network, otherwise indicating the alarm signal as primary; propagating causal effects to other functions in the network, if the alarm signal is indicated as primary; propagating alarm signals to connected functions of conditional relations, if the goal connected to the network has conditional relations; and repeating the step of searching for a cause to a changed alarm for each function where the alarm signals changes due to the propagation rules. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 27)
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11. A method for diagnosing a flow system of components, the flow system having at least a status signal indicative of the status of a component, comprising the steps of:
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receiving said status signal in an instrumentation and control database; comparing said status signal with limit values; setting a status signal by generating; an alarm signal; an alarm, if the status signal is outside the range of the limit values;
oran event outputting said status signal from said instrumentation and control database; receiving said status signal in a diagnostic apparatus; storing said status signal in a data storage device; detecting at least one change in said status signal; controlling by means of a control unit said service function dependent on selectable or predetermined information; and starting by means of said control unit at least one service function generating status information based on said status signal and dependent on a functional model of said flow system and on a set of predetermined rules describing the relationship between components of said flow system; wherein the step of generating status information comprises the steps of; finding a network of said functional model with at least two primary alarms; changing the alarm state of a function to another state for each function in the network; storing the achieved situation and indicating the investigated alarm signal as inconsistent if the number of primary alarms in the network decreases; and repeating the step of finding a network of said functional model with at least two primary alarms for each additional network with at least two primary alarms. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13)
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14. A method for diagnosing a flow system of components, the flow system having at least a status signal indicative of the status of a component, comprising the steps of:
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receiving said status signal in an instrumentation and control database; comparing said status signal with limit values; setting a status signal by generating; an alarm signal; an alarm, if the status signal is outside the range of the limit values;
oran event; outputting said status signal from said instrumentation and control database; receiving said status signal in a diagnostic apparatus; storing said status signal in a data storage device; detecting at least one change in said status signal; controlling by means of a control unit said service function dependent on selectable or predetermined information; and starting by means of said control unit at least one service function generating status information based on said status signal and dependent on a functional model of said flow system and on a set of predetermined rules describing the relationship between components of said flow system; wherein the step of generating status information comprises the steps of; choosing a goal comprised in said functional model for diagnosis; propagating the search downwards from the selected goal, via achieved relations, into a connected network of flow functions; asking a diagnostic question associated to a flow function in order to find out whether the corresponding component is currently realizing the flow function, or finding information about the working order of the flow function by means of a sensor connected to the component; setting the appropriate alarm state of the flow function; and recursively investigating a connected sub-goal if a flow function connected to the sub-goal by means of a condition relation is found to be faulty or has no means of being checked, or skipping the part of the sub-tree that comprises the flow function if the flow function is working.
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15. A method for diagnosing a flow system of components, the flow system having at least a status signal indicative of the status of a component, comprising the steps of:
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receiving said status signal in an instrumentation and control database; comparing said status signal with limit values; setting a status signal by generating; an alarm signal; an alarm, if the status signal is outside the range of the limit values;
oran event; outputting said status signal from said instrumentation and control database; receiving said status signal in a diagnostic apparatus; storing said status signal in a data storage device; detecting at least one change in said status signal; controlling by means of a control unit said service function dependent on selectable or predetermined information; and starting by means of said control unit at least one service function generating status information based on said status signal and dependent on a functional model of said flow system and on a set of predetermined rules describing the relationship between components of said flow system; wherein the step of generating status information comprises the steps of; setting the failure time of a flow function comprised in said functional model to 0; propagating the alarms as far as possible according to the consequence propagation rules and setting the failure time of the currently examined flow function to the current failure time, if the flow function has not been reached before or if the failure time stored for the flow function is larger than the current failure time; updating the current failure time when passing condition relations and storage functions; and stopping the propagation if the failure time of the currently examined flow function is less than the current failure time.
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16. A method for diagnosing a flow system of components, the flow system having at least a status signal indicative of the status of a component, comprising the steps of:
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receiving said status signal in a diagnostic apparatus; storing said status signal in a data storage device; detecting at least one change in said status signal; controlling by means of a control unit said service function dependent on selectable or predetermined information; and starting by means of said control unit at least one service function generating status information based on said status signal and dependent on a functional model of said flow system and on a set of predetermined rules describing the relationship between components of said flow system; wherein the step of generating status information comprises the steps of; searching for a cause to a changed alarm among the other functions in a network of said functional model, associated with alarm signals; indicating the alarm signal as secondary, if the alarm signal for a function is caused by another function in the network, otherwise indicating the alarm signal as primary; propagating causal effects to other functions in the network, if the alarm signal is indicated as primary; propagating alarm signals to connected functions of conditional relations, if the goal connected to the network has conditional relations; and repeating the step of searching for a cause to a changed alarm for each function where the alarm signals changes due to the propagation rules. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 28)
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22. A method for diagnosing a flow system of components, the flow system having at least a status signal indicative of the status of a component, comprising the steps of:
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receiving said status signal in a diagnostic apparatus; storing said status signal in a data storage device; detecting at least one change in said status signal; controlling by means of a control unit said service function dependent on selectable or predetermined information; and starting by means of said control unit at least one service function generating status information based on said status signal and dependent on a functional model of said flow system and on a set of predetermined rules describing the relationship between components of said flow system; wherein the step of generating status information comprises the steps of; finding a network of said functional model with at least two primary alarms; changing the alarm state of a function to another state for each function in the network; storing the achieved situation and indicating the investigated alarm signal as inconsistent if the number of primary alarms in the network decrease; and repeating the step of finding a network of said functional model with at least two primary alarms for each additional network with at least two primary alarms.
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23. A method for diagnosing a flow system of components, the flow system having at least a status signal indicative of the status of a component, comprising the steps of:
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receiving said status signal in a diagnostic apparatus; storing said status signal in a data storage device; detecting at least one change in said status signal; controlling by means of a control unit said service function dependent on selectable or predetermined information; and starting by means of said control unit at least one service function generating status information based on said status signal and dependent on a functional model of said flow system and on a set of predetermined rules describing the relationship between components of said flow system; wherein the step of generating status information comprises the steps of; choosing a goal comprised in said functional model for diagnosis; propagating the search downwards from the selected goal, via achieved relations, into a connected network of flow functions; asking a diagnostic question associated to a flow function in order to find out whether the corresponding component is currently realizing the flow function, or finding information about the working order of the flow function by means of a sensor connected to the component; setting the appropriate alarm state of the flow function; and recursively investigating a connected sub-goal if a flow function connected to the sub-goal by means of a condition relation is found to be faulty or has no means of being checked, or skipping the part of the sub-tree that comprises the flow function if the flow function is working. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25)
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26. A method for diagnosing a flow system of components, the flow system having at least a status signal indicative of the status of a component, comprising the steps of:
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receiving said status signal in a diagnostic apparatus; storing said status signal in a data storage device; detecting at least one change in said status signal; controlling by means of a control unit said service function dependent on selectable or predetermined information; and starting by means of said control unit at least one service function generating status information based on said status signal and dependent on a functional model of said flow system and on a set of predetermined rules describing the relationship between components of said flow system; wherein the step of generating status information comprises the steps of;
setting the failure time of a flow function comprised in said functional model to 0;propagating the alarms as far as possible according to the consequence propagation rules and setting the failure time of the currently examined flow function to the current failure time, if the flow function has not been reached before or if the failure time stored for the flow function is larger than the current failure time; updating the current failure time when passing condition relations and storage functions; and stopping the propagation if the failure time of the currently examined flow function is less than the current failure time.
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Specification