A FRAMEWORK FOR INTEGRATING DATABASES WITH KNOWLEDGE BASES FOR STRUCTURAL-ENGINEERING

The focus of this paper is on the problem of how can we easily combine the advantages of database and knowledge-based systems. Solving this problem has the potential to radically extend the usefulness of existi ng database systems. Conversely, the solution would also make large-sc ale knowledge based systems less costly to construct. In order to solv e this problem, we present a framework for exploring the various alter natives in the integration of the two kinds of systems. We also use th is framework to motivate our proposed solution: knowledge-embedded dat abase systems. Our proposal entails the use of simple but powerful ext ensions of a database system to increase its ability to represent and manipulate knowledge. We describe Kbase, an environment for developing knowledge-embedded database systems. We further illustrate our propos ed solution with IPDOS, a Kbase application for the preliminary design of offshore structures.