Dependency model-based multiple fault diagnosis using knowledge of test result and fault prior probability

Aiming at solving the multiple fault diagnosis problem as well as the sequence of all the potential multiple faults simultaneously, a new multiple fault diagnosis method based on the dependency model method as well as the knowledge in test results and the prior probability of each fault type is proposed. Firstly, the dependency model of the system can be built and used to formulate the fault-test dependency matrix. Then, the dependency matrix is simplified according to the knowledge in the test results of the system. After that, the logic 'OR' operation is performed on the feature vectors of the fault status in the simplified dependency matrix to formulate the multiple fault dependency matrix. Finally, fault diagnosis is based on the multiple fault dependency matrix and the ranking of each fault type calculated basing on the prior probability of each fault status. An illustrative numerical example and a case study are presented to verify the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method.