THE AUTHORS PROPOSE A KNOWLEDGE-BASED FRAMEWORK FOR ASSISTING USERS IN
SETTING UP, INTERPRETING, AND HIERARCHICALLY REFINING FINITE-ELEMENT M
ODELS IN A STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING DOMAIN. THE CENTRAL MECHANISM FOR PR
OVIDING MODELING ASSISTANCE IS THE EXPLICIT REPRESENTATION AND INCREME
NTAL ACTIVATION AND REFRACTION OF MODELING ASSUMPTIONS THAT OPERATE ON
FUNCTIONAL DESCRIPTIONS.