SRMES - AN EXPERT-SYSTEM FOR PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF SMALL REFRIGERATING MACHINES

SRMES is a rule-based expert system designed for use in the refrigerat ion industry as an aid in diagnosing the most frequent malfunctions in small refrigerating machines of either the air- or water-cooled conde nser type. Suitably expanded, it may cover other more complex types of refrigerating machine. The system could also be suitable for educatio n and training. In the version described here, SRMES is intended to de monstrate that the use of expert system tools in the refrigeration ind ustry may lead to higher efficiency and better performance. Although t he version described in the paper has been optimized for off-line perf ormance, its extension to on-line application may be justified by rele vant experience gained through its practical operation. Particular att ention is devoted in the paper to the development of the decision tree . It is shown that with computer hardware of limited capacity knowledg e-based rules can be used to reach specific diagnoses of the performan ce of small refrigerating machines.