A Knowledge-Based System for Evaluating the Seismic Resistance of Existing Buildings

The large number of existing buildings designed without considerations of seismic loading warrants the development of computer aids for the evaluation of their seismic resistance. Since evaluation and retrofit recommendations are subject to a great deal of expertise and the number of structures that need to be evaluated vastly exceeds the number of experts available, an expert system approach is appropriate. This paper describes the development of such an expert system, based on a novel from of university/industry cooperation. The basic system is designed to contain the core of commonly agreed knowledge and a knowledge acquisition facility whereby each user organization can customize the system by incorporating its own expertise.