A prototype for KYBAS: the Kentucky Bridge Analysis System

Abstract

KYBAS is a prototype to examine the use of expert systems in the area of engineering design. KYBAS is developed particularly for highway bridge design and analysis. It addresses the static load analysis of highway bridges in particular. The knowledge in KYBAS represents various materials and structural types used in the design process. The rules make the finite element modeling decisions. These decisions are used by numeric modules to generate a finite element model for the design in process. The numeric modules are coupled with the expert system to perform design and analysis in the heterogeneous code. This paper examines certain issues in expert system development and its integration with the numeric code. Issues in controlling the size of the mesh are also addressed.