Intermittent failure process and false alarm interaction modelling of threshold-based monitoring built-in tests (BITs)

Built-in tests (BITs) are widely used in manufacturing and production systems to find whether system failures occur, whereas the problem of BIT false alarms caused by intermittent failures adds to much trouble for the precise failure detection and diagnosis. Fighting with false alarms caused by intermittent failures is an urgent issue. However, the nature and temporal regularity of intermittent failures are not fully exploited, as well as the relationship between intermittent failure and BIT false alarms. The present paper introduces the method of constructing failure test profile for false alarm assessments. Probabilistic models are proposed of the failure evolution process, as well as the interactions between intermittent failures and false alarms. The false alarm time expectation is derived with the given model, serving as the foundation for the optimisation problem to find the best test threshold to enable the highest BIT capability. A numerical analysis is made to illustrate the proposed model and examine the threshold determination method. An application study is also carried out to show how the model can be applicable in real engineering practices.