Model Aided Diagnosis Of Mechanical Systems

The book is concerned with the diagnosis of the damage and faults of mechanical systems in the diverse fields of engineering. It takes into consideration the various stages of the life cycle of a system from a diagnosis-oriented point of view and from a methodological one. Analysis, testing and diagnosis is linked with all stages of a system's life, with an enormous effect on costs, reliability and safety. The classical methods of diagnosis based on signature analysis are reviewed in the introduction. The main subject is the model-supported diagnosis using system identification methods for adjusting mathematical models to various states of the system under investigation at pre-given life times. These adjusted models perform the best knowledge base available about the system which serve the purposes of fault detection, localization, and the cause-finding of faults and their assessment, predictions due to future forcings and trend predictions. The diagnostic decision-making is based on validated models. The assessment to be made with the resulting consequences also is discussed.