An Object-Oriented Approach to the Treatment of Physical Quantities in Structural Engineering

Abstract

In order to treat engineering data on computers considering the conversion of their units and the consistency of physical dimensions, a knowledge-based system for the processing of physical quantities using an object-oriented approach is proposed. Some of the concepts for understanding physical quantities as objects are described. The basic consideration for designing necessary classes and their hierarchical structure for the processing of physical quantities in structural engineering is presented. The proposed system works as an knowledge-base of physical quantities, and it is easily implemented into any system for engineering anlysis written in Smalltalk.