Apparatus and method for two-stage detection of furnace flooding or other conditions

An apparatus comprising:

• at least one processing device configured to:
• process data associated with operation of equipment in an industrial process to repeatedly (i) identify one or more models that mathematically represent the operation of the equipment using training data, the one or models including a multi-level equipment hierarchy that models plant and equipment structure;
• and (ii) generate first indicators in a multi-stage determination potentially identifying at least one specified condition of the equipment using evaluation data and the one or more models;
• classify the first indicators into multiple classes, the multiple classes including true positive indicators and false positive indicators, the true positive indicators identifying that the equipment is suffering from the at least one specified condition, the false positive indicators identifying that the equipment is not suffering from the at least one specified condition;
• and
• generate a notification indicating that the equipment is suffering from the at least one specified condition in response to one or more first indicators being classified into the class of true positive indicators.

A non-transitory computer readable medium containing instructions that when executed cause at least one processing device to:

• process data associated with operation of equipment in an industrial process to repeatedly (i) identify one or more models that mathematically represent the operation of the equipment using training data, the one or models including a multi-level equipment hierarchy that models plant and equipment structure;
• and (ii) generate first indicators in a multi-stage determination potentially identifying at least one specified condition of the equipment using evaluation data and the one or more models;
• classify the first indicators into multiple classes, the multiple classes including true positive indicators and false positive indicators, the true positive indicators identifying that the equipment is suffering from the at least one specified condition, the false positive indicators identifying that the equipment is not suffering from the at least one specified condition;
• and
• generate a notification indicating that the equipment is suffering from the at least one specified condition in response to one or more first indicators being classified into the class of true positive indicators.