Knowledge base system (KBS) applied on corrosion damage assessment on metallic structure pipes

This paper aims to outline a proposed knowledge base system (KBS) for the assessment of corrosive damage on metallic pipe conduits. KBS is developed by using two information sources available for assessing the corrosive damage of pipes which are mainly: expert knowledge and field data. In our knowledge, it's a new method that assists the engineer in his task for assessing the degree of damage on metallic pipes, yielding therefore to a rational evaluation of the corrosive damage (hence the ECOR system) on metallic structures of pipeline, and permits to assign the damage degree on the structure qualitatively while using a ladder of indications representing the severity of each damage type (pitting, crater, weight loss and crack), regarding the priority of either repairing or replacing the metal piece. Furthermore, the analytic hierarchy process is implemented overall the system to determine whether the damage severity requires the engineer intervention in a systematic and rational way.