A steam turbine diagnostic maintenance system based on an evolutive domain ontology

This paper describes the design of a fault diagnostic maintenance system for steam turbines based on a domain ontology and coupled to an expert system. The main data and information constituting the system come from disparate data bases with different usage. In this case a database for equipment characteristics and another containing maintenance acts defining symptoms, defects and remedies for maintenance cases. An Expert System (ES) integrated with the domain ontology of the steam turbine is used as a reasoner in order to generate new knowledge. The second aspect of the paper focuses on the possible enhancement and evolution of the developed ontology in order to take into account new maintenance cases. Examples of ontology evolution are given at an instance and class levels.