A methodology for developing an object description system based on functional-structure of chemical plant is proposed. A knowledge base for chemical plant fault diagnosis is also organized in a generic fashion using the heuristic knowledge of human operators. A plant can be seen as a hierarchical set of subsystems. Each subsystem is called a SCOPE. The state of the plant and the behavior of each subsystem is managed by the SCOPES. A computer-based system based on thls methodology and knowledge base has been developed and applied to the subprocess of ethylene plant to evaluate the effectiveness of the methodology.