DEVELOPMENT OF EXPERT-SYSTEM FOR STRUCTUR AL DESIGN OF FBR COMPONENTS

The characteristics of structural design processes for nuclear compone nts can be summarized as follows: (1) Many engineers belonging to diff erent fields are working in parallel, exchanging a huge amount of data and information. (2) A final solution is determined after a number of iterative design processes. (3) Solutions have to be examined many ti mes based on sophisticated design codes. (4) Sophisticated calculation methods such as the finite element method are frequently utilized, an d experts' knowledge on such analyses plays important roles in the des ign process. Taking these issues into consideration, a new expert syst em for structural design is developed in the present study. Here, the object-oriented dataflow mechanism and the blackboard model are utiliz ed to systematize structural design processes in a computer. An automa ted finite element calculation module is implemented, and experts' kno wledge is stored in knowledge base. In addition, a new algorithm is em ployed to automatically draw the design window, which is defined as an area of permissible solutions in a design parameter space. The develo ped system is successfully applied to obtain the design windows of fou r components selected from the demonstration FBR structures.