State surveillance and fault diagnosis of distillation columns using residual network-based passive acoustic monitoring

The operational state of distillation columns significantly impacts product quality and production efficiency. However, due to the complex operation and diverse influencing factors, ensuring the safety and efficient operation of the distillation columns becomes paramount. This research combines passive acoustic monitoring with artificial intelligence techniques, proposed a technology based on residual network (ResNet), which involves the transformation of the acoustic signals emitted by three distillation columns under different operating states. The acoustic signals were initially in one-dimensional waveform format and then converted into two-dimensional Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients spectrogram database using fast Fourier transform. Ultimately, this database was employed to train a ResNet for the purpose of identifying the operational states of the distillation columns. Through this approach, the operational states of distillation columns were monitored. Various faults, including flooding, entrainment, dry-tray, etc ., were diagnosed with an accuracy of 98.91%. Moreover, an intermediate transitional state between normal operation and fault was identified and accurately recognized by the proposed method. Under the transitional state, the acoustic signals achieved an accuracy of 97.85% on the ResNet, which enables early warnings before faults occur, enhancing the safety of chemical production processes. The approach presents a powerful tool for the monitoring and diagnosis of chemical equipment, particularly distillation columns, ensuring the safety and efficiency. • Acoustic signals of the distillation column were correlated with the internal fluid behavior. • Time-domain signals were transformed into cepstral-domain MFCC spectrogram datasets. • The datasets were classified and recognized using Resnet resulted in a remarkably high accuracy. • Transitional state between normal mode and fault was revealed and recognized.