Condition Assessment of Buried Pipes Using Hierarchical Evidential Reasoning Model |
| |
Authors: | Hua Bai Rehan Sadiq Homayoun Najjaran Balvant Rajani |
| |
Affiliation: | 1Associate Professor, Campus P.O. Box 412, Harbin Institute of Technology, 92 West Dazhi St., Nangang District, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province 150006, P.R. China. 2Associate Research Officer, Institute for Research in Construction (IRC), National Research Council of Canada, M-20, 1200 Montreal Rd., Ottawa, ON, Canada K1A 0R6 (corresponding author). E-mail: rehan.sadiq@nrc_cnrc.gc.ca 3Assistant Professor, Univ. of British Columbia, Okanagan Campus, School of Engineering, 3333 University Way, Kelowna BC, Canada. 4Principal Research Officer, Institute for Research in Construction (IRC), National Research Council of Canada, M-20, 1200 Montreal Rd., Ottawa, ON, Canada K1A 0R6.
|
| |
Abstract: | Effective inspection and monitoring practices for the condition assessment of pipes ensure better decision(s) for repair or replacement before they fail. Pipe deterioration is a physical manifestation of the aging process in which many factors can contribute to structural failure. Various technologies/ techniques have been developed during the last few years to inspect/monitor piping systems, but how to intelligently interpret the collected data remains a challenge. In this paper, a new approach based on hierarchical evidential reasoning is proposed. This approach uses Dempster–Shafer (D-S) theory to make inferences for condition assessment of buried pipes. A hierarchical evidential reasoning model can help combine different distress indicators (bodies of evidence) at different hierarchical levels using D-S rule of combination. The proposed hierarchical evidential reasoning method is demonstrated with an example of condition assessment for a large diameter pipe. Information from multiple sources is fused to obtain a more reliable assessment of pipe deterioration. |
| |
Keywords: | Buried pipes Deterioration Decision making Probability Damage assessment |
|
|