A fault locating method for batch process based on a compound multilevel flow model

A new modeling method which compounds Multilevel Flow Model (MFM) with Petri-net is put forwards in order to solve the difficulty problem in fault locating for batch process of flow industry. The first step in modeling is to create a Petri-net which also can be used as an information network in MFM. The goal of the Petri-net set up is to describe the system status as being a no fault goal of MFM. And then for an uniform combination of MFM and Petri-net an enable condition is defined to extend MFM based on its conventional four conditions. A modeling example of water supply system is given and the fault location rules are illustrated. An experiment shows that the new method is effective in real time fault diagnosis.