Development of the corrosion depth prediction model of water pipe using fuzzy theory

To use the fuzzy theory for considering the corrosion-influencing factors, this study developed the corrosion depth prediction model for steel pipe. An analysis result of individual factors affecting corrosion shown that it was reasonable to apply the method to simultaneously consider the various corrosion influence factors using fuzzy theory. To make corrosion depth prediction models, a modified two-phase model that combines the fuzzy score was adopted. The developed models can express different corrosion characteristics according to the various environmental conditions, and the models had higher correlation than previous models. Especially, the proposed model that considers corrosion influence factors provided higher explanatory and prediction power than the models that simply consider only the pipe age. In conclusion, it is expected that the proposed corrosion depth prediction model will make it possible to predict the service life of water pipes more accurately as a basic model that can be utilized for predicting the physical residual life of water pipes.