Development of expert system for nuclear piping integrity

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to develop a nuclear piping integrity expert system (NPIES) for nuclear piping integrity. This paper describes the structure and the development strategy of the NPIES system. The NPIES system consists of five parts; user interface, database, knowledge base, expert and integrity evaluation parts. The user interface part is developed to connect the user and the NPIES system effectively. In the database part, nuclear piping material properties are stored; the unknown material properties are stored in the knowledge base part. Various rules for inferring material properties are stored in the knowledge base part. The most appropriate evaluation method for a given input condition is recommended in the expert part. Finally, the integrity evaluation part is developed for the evaluation of piping integrity effectively.