Development of an expert system for weld design support (To provide advice on determination of weld conditions to prevent weld cracking in a pressure vessel)

Weldments are one of the most important parts in terms of structural integrity assurance. However, since (1) structures are becoming more and more large-scale, complicated and diverse, and their operating conditions are getting more and more severe, (2) welding phenomena are too complicated with many and diverse factors, and (3) the progress and extension of welding technology are quite remarkable, and much effort is required on the part of welding engineers to secure good quality welds. Therefore, with the aim of reducing their workload, an expert system has been developed using Prolog to support welding designers in making decisions and in determining weld conditions against weld cracking in a pressure vessel. What characterizes our system are: (1) a computer reduces the number of candidates through a TSS session, (2) at any point, the user could cut in and request the computer to find another solution by following another different logical sequence, and (3) the user, if unexperienced, could leave the decision to the computer to find appropriate conditions.