Process Fault Diagnosis Using Support Vector Machines with a Genetic Algorithm based Parameter Tuning

Fault diagnosis, centered on pattern recognition techniques employing online measurements of process data, has been studied during the past decades. Amongst those techniques, artificial neural networks classifiers received an enormous attention due to some of their remarkable features. Recently, a new machine learning method based on statistical learning theory known as the Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier is offered in the pattern recognition field. Support vector machine classifiers were originally used to solve binary classification problems. Subsequently, methods were proposed to apply support vector machine classifier to multiclass problems. Two of these mostly used methods are known as one versus one and one versus all. This paper deals with the application of the above mentioned classifiers for fault diagnosis of a chemical process containing a continuous stirred tank reactor and a heat exchanger. The results show a superior classification performance of the support vector machine versus the selected artificial neural network. In addition, the support vector machine classifier is very sensitive to the proper selection of the training parameters. It is shown that the utilization of genetic algorithm for optimal selection of these parameters is feasible and can help to improve the support vector machine classifier performance.