Research on spatial-temporal synergistic sensor fault diagnosis method for top-blowing furnace

Top-blowing furnace systems, characterized by a large number of sensors and harsh working environments, are prone to sensor failures due to factors like component aging and external interference. These failures can significantly impact the system's safe and reliable operation. However, traditional sensor fault diagnosis methods often neglect the exploration of spatial-temporal characteristics and focus solely on learning temporal relationships between sensors, failing to effectively consider their spatial relationships. In this study, we propose a spatial correlation model based on the maximal information-based graph convolutional network (MI-GCN) by constructing a sensor network knowledge graph using maximal mutual information. The MI-GCN leverages the graph convolution mechanism to extract multi-scale spatial features and capture the spatial relationships between sensors. Additionally, we develop a spatial-temporal graph-level prediction model, known as the spatial-temporal graph transformer (STGT), to extract temporal features. By combining the spatial features extracted by the MI-GCN with the temporal features captured by the STGT, accurate predictions can be achieved. Sensor fault diagnosis is conducted by analysing the normalized residuals between the predicted values and the ground truth. Finally, the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method are validated using test data from a top-blowing furnace system in the nickel smelting process.