Fault isolation in nonlinear systems with structured partial principal component analysis and clustering analysis

Partial principal component analysis (PCA) and parity relations are proven to be useful methods in fault isolation. To overcome the limitation of applying partial PCA to nonlinear problems, a new approach utilizing clustering analysis is proposed. By dividing a partial data set into smaller subsets, one can build more accurate PCA models with fewer principal components, and isolate faults with higher precision. Simulations on a 2 x 2 nonlinear system and the Tennessee Eastman (TE) process show the advantages of using the clustered partial PCA method over other nonlinear approaches.