J. Basic. Appl. Sci. Res. , 2(1)105-113, 2012
© 2012, TextRoad Publication
ISSN 2090-4304
Journal of Basic and Applied
Scientific Research
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*Corresponding Author: Fereshteh Khalaj, Department of Statistics, Tehran North Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
Tel/Fax/Mob: +982144005339/+982144140491/+989124960689, Email: Khalaj82@gmail.com
Engine Fault Diagnosis Decision-Making with
Incomplete Information Using Dempster-Shafer Theory
H.R Mostafaei
1
, M. Khalaj
2
, F. Khalaj
1,*
, A.H. Khalaj
3,
A. Makui
4
1
Department of Statistics, Tehran North Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
2
Department of Industrial Engineering, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
3
Department of management and accounting, EslamShahr Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
4
Department of Industrial Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran
______________________________________________________________________________________
ABSTRACT
In this paper, a Demster-Shafer method is proposed for engine diagnosis with incomplete information that
obtains from multi-sensor. We apply the Dempster-Shafer method to solve fault diagnosis problems based on
incomplete matrix of engine condition that describes an aspect of N types of engine states (or faults) that
provided by M sensor. Thus we make rational decision with respect to this matrix. On the base of DS theory,
first we identify all possible focal elements from the incomplete matrix, and then the basic probability
assignment of each focal element and the belief interval of each decision alternative are calculated to identify
the fault states of engine. Preference relations among all decision alternatives about fault states are determined
by comparing their belief intervals. Within this framework we proposed a new way for identify the basic
probability assignment based on ambiguity measures associated with information obtained from each sensor.
This measure is defined by Shannon’s entropy. A numerical example is studied to illustrate the detailed
implementation process of the DS approach and demonstrate its potential applications in dealing with decision
alternative about engine fault diagnosis problems with incomplete information.
Keywords: Dempster-Shafer (DS) method; fault diagnosis; multi-diagnosis decision matrix; decision-
alternative
1-INTROUDUCTION
The performance of structures and principle of engines and mechanical systems deteriorates
during their service life. Therefore, the ability to fault diagnosis of these systems is becoming increasingly
important from both economic and life-safety viewpoints.
Single sensor cannot reliably obtain all the information required for fault diagnosis, thus engine
diagnostics is a typically multi-sensor fusion problem. A main question in fault diagnosis technique is,
precise and reliable information that cues about potential faults by incorporating complementary, and
possibly redundant, multiple sensors [1]:
There has been a substantial amount of research work that conducted in the area of decision fusion
with regard to making more reasonable inferences based on multi-sensor information. Most of these
methods to fault diagnosis are built around Artificial neural network (ANN), Bayes theory, fuzzy logic
inference and Dempster–Shafer evidence theory (DS theory) [2].
ANN based technique for fault diagnosis have been evolving in fields such as: combine the
pressure, sound and vibration features to detect the faults of a diesel engine that is reported by Sharkey et
al. [3], fault diagnosis method by the use of extract features from data acquired from multiple sensors
attached on a helicopter gearbox based on fuzzy neural network that is reported by Eassawy [4], a data
fusion method of ANN combined with wavelet analysis for structural damage detection is proposed by
Xiao et al. [5].
For Bayesian inference techniques for fault diagnosis, we can refer to Dromigny and Zhu [6] who
improve the dynamic range of a real-time X-ray imaging system by integration information acquired under
two different acquisition conditions. Lucas [7] is used Bayesian network and logical reasoning to minimize
decision uncertainty of fault diagnosis. M.A. Rodrigues and et al. [8–12] used the Bayesian network to
combine probabilistic reasoning with time dependent. Beck and his partners have series of research on
Bayesian probabilistic framework for structural modal updating and damage identification
For fuzzy logic inference, on-line health monitoring system for hydraulic pumps was propose by
Amin et al. [13] that utilizes feature extraction, based on fuzzy inference systems and knowledge fusion.
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