Structural Analysis Consultation System Developed by Use of Knowledge Bases and Symbolic Manipulation

Abstract

An attempt is made to constitute an integrated consultation system for structural analysis. The objective at present is to furnish a prototype consultation system with the ability to recognize a structure and its properties in terms of the physical model and to predict the model response qualitatively. Elastic beams and plates are taken as the physical model. The system consists of the analysis knowledge base and structure-domain base of the physical model linked mutually by message communication and supported by the inference engine. The knowledge is stated in the form of the frame model. A symbolic processor is provided for the manipulation of equations and formulae. The inference engine is described in Prolog language. The system is implemented on a personal computer PC 9801 VX 2. The case studies of beam problems confirm the potential of the prototype system to evolve into sophisticated consultation systems for large computers in the future.