Object-oriented representation of qualitative engineering properties

Abstract The paper presents objections to the prevailing record-oriented data modelling of physical-world properties of use to engineering design. The limitations, which produce an oversimplification in the representation of property information, are highlighted in relation to software systems for materials selection. The overarching problem lies in the highly context-specific way in which properties of materials and engineering products need to be interpreted. By way of redress, two techniques are presented which are supported by a special object-oriented language devised to process design descriptions. The first technique provides a representation of properties of families of materials as distributions of numerical values within ranges which are automatically generated by family members. The second technique involves treating qualitatively described properties as agglomerations of property features compounded or together. Both techniques are supported by a special language specification of complex prototypical objects which depict the properties of any given entity themselves as entities.