Application of modeling and simulation in fault detection and diagnosis of HVAC systems

Failures can lead to a series of problems in the complex heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems in buildings. Fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) is an important technology to solve these problems. Models can represent the behaviors of the HVAC systems, and FDD can be realized with models. Using the model as intermediary, a link between system simulation and FDD can be built. Simulation has provided a convenient platform of operation for FDD, the overall simulation methodology in FDD of HVAC systems is briefly introduced. Various reference models, faulty behaviors, modeling environments, and algorithms for FDD are discussed or compared. Finally, the model-based FDD schemes for HVAC systems proposed by many researchers in various  ways have been reviewed.