A PROCESS MODEL FOR KNOWLEDGE-BASED CONCRETE BRIDGE DESIGN

Modeling the design process is an important step in knowledge-based sy stem (KBS) development. This involves a thorough examination of the ap plication domain, and an identification of the required artificial int elligence techniques for the development of KBS. This paper presents o ne such research programme, carried out in the domain of concrete road bridge design. KBSs for bridge design have been traditionally impleme nted as production rule systems. This paper argues that an integration of Al-based problem-solving techniques is necessary to address the va rious tasks of bridge design. It has been demonstrated that a design p rocess model based on rule-based inference, synthesis and critical eva luation techniques is required to address the knowledge-intensive task s of site selection, bridge layout planning, conceptual design and pre liminary design of concrete road bridges, in an efficient manner.