AI-driven Sound and Thermal HVAC Fault Diagnosis

Description

One of the most prominent hurdles in operating manufacturing plants is to regulate the enervating heat produced by industrial processes. Therefore, an efficient industrial cooling system is the fulcrum of managing a profitable, sustainable, and robust industrial facility. There are various cooling system designs and structures to provide versatile heat regulation for different business requirements. For instance, natural draft cooling benefits the density discrepancy between the produced hot air and ambient fresh air, mechanical draft cooling utilizes sprayed hot water to transfer heat from a condenser to dry air, and water cooling uses cold water directly to reduce the targeted component temperature.

Details

When all cooling requirements are considered, water cooling options are still the most popular and budget-friendly cooling systems applicable to various cooling scenarios, including but not limited to condominiums, office buildings, and industrial facilities. Water cooling systems, also known as hydronic cooling systems, are mainly considered as the most adaptable and advantageous HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) systems utilizing water to transfer heat from one location to another[1]. Since hydronic HVAC systems use water to absorb and transfer heat, they are more energy efficient as compared to air-based systems since water has a higher thermal capacity. According to the applied heat transfer method and water source, water-based cooling systems provide design flexibility with low-maintenance.

Nonetheless, despite the advantages of relying on water as a coolant, water-based HVAC systems still require regular inspection and maintenance to retain peak condition and avert pernicious cooling aberrations deteriorating heat regulation for industrial facilities, office buildings, or houses. Since water-based cooling equipment is a part of various demanding industrial applications[2], including but not limited to chemicals or petrochemicals, welding, medical, pharmaceutical, automotive, data centers, and metalworking, maintaining consistent and reliable heat transfer is essential to sustain profitable business growth. Thus, to reduce production costs and increase manufacturing efficiency, mechanics should examine each cooling component painstakingly and regularly.

Since hydronic HVAC systems can be intricate and multifaceted depending on the application requirements, there are plentiful malfunctions that can affect cooling efficiency and heat transfer capacity, resulting in catastrophic production downtime for industrial processes. For instance, chillers using metal tubes (copper or carbon steel) to circulate water are susceptible to corrosion and abrasion, leading to leaks and component failures. Accumulating sediment or particulates in the complex tubing systems can corrode or clog pipes, leading to inadequate heat transfer. Or, perforce, neglected electronic components can degrade and fail due to prolonged wear and tear, leading to inconsistent cooling results. Unfortunately, these HVAC system malfunctions not only deteriorate industrial process sustainability but also engender hazardous environmental impacts due to high energy loss.

Water-based or not, an installed HVAC system accounts for up to 50% of the total energy consumption of an establishment, surpassing the total energy consumption of lighting, elevators, and office equipment[3]. Thus, an unnoticed abnormality can multiply energy consumption while the HVAC system tries to compensate for the heat transfer loss. Furthermore, since HVAC systems are tightly coupled systems and operate with protracted lag and inertia, they are vulnerable even to minuscule abnormalities due to the ripple effect of a single equipment failure, whether a capacitor, pipe, or gasket.

Relevant data indicates that the amount of energy waste caused by a malfunctioning cooling system and faulty control accounts for about 15%–30% of the total energy consumption of studied facilities. Thus, by running a malfunctioning cooling system, buildings became profligate energy devourers, resulting in harsh energy production demands causing excess carbon and methane emitted into the atmosphere. Therefore, applying real-time (automated) malfunction diagnosis to HVAC systems can abate excessive energy consumption and improve energy efficiency leading to savings ranging from 5% to 30% [3]. In addition to preventing energy loss, automated HVAC fault detection can extend equipment lifespan, avoid profit loss, and provide stable heat transfer during industrial processes. In that regard, automated malfunction detection also obviates exorbitant overhaul processes due to prolonged negligence, leading...

Components

2 × ELECROW Custom PCB

1 × LattePanda Mu (x86 Compute Module)

1 × Lite Carrier Board for LattePanda Mu

1 × Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32C6

1 × Particle Photon 2

Build Instructions

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Demonstration Videos

Since this HVAC malfunction detection device performs various interconnected features between different development boards and the web application (dashboard), I needed to compartmentalize consecutive processes and describe functions under the same code file separately to provide comprehensive step-by-step instructions.

Thus, I highly recommend watching the demonstration videos before scrutinizing the tutorial steps to effortlessly grasp device capabilities that might look complicated in the instructions.
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Step 0: A brief introduction to device features and structure

As my projects became more intricate due to complex designs and multiple development board integrations, I decided to create concise illustrations to improve my tutorials, visualize the special tasks associated with each development board, and delineate the complicated data transfer procedures between different boards or complementary applications.

Thus, before proceeding with the following steps, I highly recommend inspecting these illustrations to comprehend the device features and structure better.

Note: Since downsizing these high-resolution illustrations is necessary for loading the tutorial page, I noticed the text on the illustrations lost legibility. Therefore, I also added the original image files below for further inspection.

Before designing my simplified water-based HVAC system to simulate the required component failures for data collection and in-field model testing, I thoroughly inspected common water-cooled HVAC mechanisms[4] to understand the inner workings of applying water as a coolant for transferring excess heat in industrial processes.
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Step 1.a: Designing and soldering the Kyogre-inspired PCB

As I was developing device features, I noticed that I needed to run different data collection procedures and machine learning models simultaneously. Therefore, I decided to create two separate PCB designs to run the required tasks conclusively. Since I wanted my PCB designs to represent the equilibrium of cooling fan failures and thermal (heat) malfunctions, I got inspired by two ancient rival Pokémon — Kyogre and Groudon. Their legendary fights depict the epitome of the conflict between water cooling and exuberating heat :)

Before prototyping my Kyogre-inspired PCB design, I inspected the detailed pin reference of XIAO ESP32C6 and needed to prepare components requiring soldering for programming. Aside from the other components, I employed a soldering station to solder jumper wires to each leg of the micro switch in order to make it compatible with the custom switch connector on the CNC router, which will be explained in the following steps.

Then, I checked the wireless (Wi-Fi) and serial communication quality between XIAO ESP32C6, Arduino Nano, and the web dashboard (application) while transferring and receiving data packets. In the meantime, I also tested the torque capacity of the 28BYJ-48 stepper motor.

I designed my Kyogre-inspired PCB by utilizing Autodesk Fusion 360 and KiCad in tandem. Since I wanted to design a unique 3D-printed encasement to simplify the PCB integration to the special mounts (also 3D-printed) of the aluminum water cooling radiator, I created the PCB outline (edge) on Fusion 360 and then imported the outline file (DXF) to KiCad. In this regard, I was able to design custom 3D parts compatible with the PCB outline precisely.

To replicate this malfunction detection device for water-cooled HVAC systems, you can download the Gerber file below or order the discussed PCB design directly from my ELECROW community page.

By utilizing a TS100 soldering iron, I attached the component list depicted below.

📌 Component list of the Kyogre PCB:

L_1, L_2 (Headers for XIAO ESP32C6)

A1 (Headers for Arduino Nano)

Mic1 (Fermion: I2S MEMS Microphone)

SSD1306 (Headers for SSD1306 OLED Display)

L1 (Headers for Bi-Directional Logic Level Converter)

SW1 (Micro Switch (JL024-2-026))

ULN2003 (Headers for 28BYJ-48 Stepper Motor)

R1 (20K Resistor)

R2 (220Ω Resistor)

C1, C2, C3, C4, K1 (6x6 Pushbutton)

D1 (5 mm Common Anode RGB LED)

J2 (Headers for Additional Stepper Motor Power Supply)

J1 (Power Jack)

Since some components were tricky to solder due to the unique structure of the Kyogre PCB, I utilized the soldering station to hold the problematic parts.

After concluding soldering all components, I tested whether the Kyogre PCB operated as expected or was susceptible to electrical issues.