An online method for detection and reduction of chattering alarms due to oscillation

•An online method is proposed to detect the chattering alarms due to oscillation and to reduce the amount of chattering alarms.•A revised chattering index is proposed to quantify the level of chattering alarms.•The discrete cosine transform-based method is used to detect the presence of oscillation.•The adjustment of alarm trippoint and a delay timer are exploited to reduce the amount of chattering alarms.•An industrial case study is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Chattering alarms, which repeatedly and rapidly make transitions between alarm and normal states in a short time period, are the most common form of nuisance alarms that severely degrade the performance of alarm systems for industrial plants. One reason for chattering alarms is the presence of oscillation in process signals. The paper proposes an online method to promptly detect the chattering alarms due to oscillation and to effectively reduce the number of chattering alarms. In particular, a revised chattering index is proposed to quantify the level of chattering alarms; the discrete cosine transform-based method is used to detect the presence of oscillation; two mechanisms by adjusting the alarm trippoint and using a delay timer are exploited to reduce the number of chattering alarms. An industrial case study is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.