Patent ID: 7181374

Claim:
A method of detecting and isolating a fault condition in a dynamic system having physical system components, the method comprising the steps of: a. generating a topological model of the system; b. removing non-critical variables from the system model to derive a simplified reduced order model of the system; c. converting the simplified model into a temporal causal graph (TCG) wherein vertices in the TCG represent variables in the simplified model and temporal edges in the TCG represent relationships between the variables in the simplified model; d. identifying at least one negative gain algebraic loop in the TCG; e. tracing a path back to an entry point vertex into the at least one algebraic loop to create a marked entry point; f. using the algebraic loop to generate predicted deviations in system behavior caused by the fault condition; g. screening the predicted deviations using the marked entry point to identify valid deviations; h. using the valid deviations to create an enhanced predicted deviation in system output caused by the fault condition; i. activating the system; j. measuring an output from at least one physical component of the system; k. converting the measured output into electrical signals corresponding to measured deviations in system output; and detecting the fault condition by comparing the measured deviations in system output to the enhanced predicted deviation.