ASPECTS OF AN EXPERT DESIGN SYSTEM FOR THE WASTE-WATER TREATMENT INDUSTRY

A new computer aided design program has been created, which uses compu ter modelling and simulation techniques in order to automatically gene rate a design solution for a High Recirculation Airlift Reactor (HRAR) wastewater treatment plant. This program replaces a set of programs w hich could only be used by process design experts, as many decisions h ad to be made whilst using the design system. A new expert system is b eing created to automatically integrate expert knowledge into the desi gn process, This expert system will sit above the design program and c ontrol the design process, The objective of the new work presented her e was to investigate methods for implementing this new expert system o nto the new design program, This consisted of creating prototype softw are in order to demonstrate the advantages of applying expert systems methods to the design of the HRAR treatment process. This paper introd uces the approach taken to acquiring and formulating the expert knowle dge, and presents simple software to demonstrate the approach.