Fault Isolability Prediction of Diagnostic Models

Fault isolability plays a significant role and could be critical with respect to many aspects such as safety and maintenance for a process to be diagnosed. In the development of processes including diagnosis, design decisions are taken, e.g. sensor configuration selection, which affects the fault isolability possibilities. In this paper an algorithm for predicting fault isolability possibilities using a structural model describing the process is proposed. Since only a structural model is needed as input, the algorithm can easily predict fault isolability possibilities of different design concepts. In contrast to previous algorithms using structural models no assumption is imposed on the model. The algorithm computes faults that cannot be distinguished from other faults, which can be used to exclude design alternatives with insufficient isolability possibility.