Expert Systems In Structural Safety Assessment

Structural safety of industrial systems and components raises a steadily growing public, scientific and engineering interest, and causes permanent development of methods and techniques used for its assessment. In addition to the well established engineering methods, applied in the field, several new methods and tools have emerged recently. Among them, the most novel ones are probably those related to expert system applica tions, appearing as an important possible improvement of the current engineering practice. The issue has been addressed by the international course EXPERT SYSTEMS IN STRUCTURAL SAFETY ASSESSMENT organized by MPA Stuttgart and JRC Ispra (Stuttgart, October 2-4, 1989), and the proceedings of the course are contained in this volume of the Lecture Notes ill Engineering. The contributions (invited lectures) tackle the issues usually confronting developers and users of expert systems applied in structural engineering, i.e. in structural safety and integrity assessment. Both the book and the course are a combination of a tutorial and of presentation of the current achievements in the field. Starting from the basic elements of expert systems (knowledge based systems), the book should "guide" the reader up to the applications in various particular sub-domains.

Expert Systems in Construction and Structural Engineering is a valuable reference both for researchers interested in the state-of-the-art of civil engineering expert systems, and practitioners interested in exploring the practical applications of this new technology.

In the last two decades, the rapid deterioration of bridge structures has become a serious technical and economical problem in many countries, including highly developed ones. Therefore, bridge rehabilitation has also become a very essential factor (sometimes even a decisive one) in contemporary bridge engineering. The book covers in synthetic form nearly all the most important problems concerning bridge rehabilitation, such as bridge superstructure and substructure, the typical damage observed in bridges as well as the assessment and evaluation techniques of their technical condition. The book is intended mainly for postgraduate university students. Therefore, all the problems are mostly presented in their physical, chemical and technical as well as economical aspects. The relevant requirements are treated as objective ones, i.e. irrespective of the rules, standards, regulations or guidelines particular to any country. This approach to the subject gives the book a more general character and therefore makes it a useful text for most civil engineering courses./a

This book presents a detailed and up-to-date exposition of fault monitoring methods in industrial processes and structures. The following approaches are explained in considerable detail: Model-based methods (simple tests, analytical redundancy, parameter estimation); knowledge-based methods; artificial neural network methods; and nondestructive testing, etc. Each approach is complemented by specific case studies from various industrial sectors (aerospace, chemical, nuclear, etc.), thus bridging theory and practice. This volume will be a valuable tool in the hands of professional and academic engineers. It can also be recommended as a supplementary postgraduate textbook. For scientists whose work involves automatic process control and supervision, statistical process control, applied statistics, quality control, computer-assisted predictive maintenance and plant monitoring, and structural reliability and safety.

The need for a comprehensive book on probabilistic structural mechanics that brings together the many analytical and computational methods developed over the years and their applications in a wide spectrum of industries-from residential buildings to nuclear power plants, from bridges to pressure vessels, from steel structures to ceramic structures-became evident from the many discussions the editor had with practising engineers, researchers and professors. Because no single individual has the expertise to write a book with such a di.verse scope, a group of 39 authors from universities, research laboratories, and industries from six countries in three continents was invited to write 30 chapters covering the various aspects of probabilistic structural mechanics. The editor and the authors believe that this handbook will serve as a reference text to practicing engineers, teachers, students and researchers. It may also be used as a textbook for graduate-level courses in probabilistic structural mechanics. The editor wishes to thank the chapter authors for their contributions. This handbook would not have been a reality without their collaboration.

"This book contains contributions that cover a wide spectrum of very important real-world engineering problems, and explores the implementation of neural networks for the representation of structural responses in earthquake engineering. It assesses the efficiency of seismic design procedures and describes the latest findings in intelligent optimal control systems and their applications in structural engineering"--Provided by publisher.