Functional hierarchical approach to fault diagnosis

A functional hierarchical model for fault diagnosis is presented. In this approach, the fundamental analysis of the focal point of action of an entire system serves as the root of a functional structure. The functional interrelationships between the root component and the rest of the components in the device are used as a knowledge source for the functional model. A measure based on the complexity of the change or repair procedure and the accessibility of a component is introduced as a facility index. The opinion of an expert and the facility index are combined and used to form a functional hierarchical model. A welding system with numerous functional parameters is shown as an example to illustrate the model