C. J. Burgoyne and H. Janardhan Sundaram
Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge,
Cambridge, UK
Bridge engineering is a field where
competitive tendering for non-conforming designs is very common, indicating
that many inefficient structures are still being designed. The process of
bridge design is a complex task because of the number of design options, of the
large number of design parameters and the interaction between them. It takes
years of experience to develop an understanding of design process. The design
is often perceived as an iterative process of generation, evaluation and
modification of trial designs. The paper describes the development of an expert
system BRIDEX, for the design of prestressed concrete bridges. The philosophy
is to develop a system which can take account of governing factors at an early
stage in the design process, thus minimising the iterative nature of design.
BRIDEX will help unravel the design intricacies and guide the designer in
making decisions.
Expert Systems appear to offer a
great deal to design engineers; proponents of such systems imply that they will
be able to completely automate the decision making process. Advances in
computing power in the 1960s were matched by changes in the way analyses were
carried out, primarily because existing analysis methods had been limited by
the difficulty in solving simultaneous equations.
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