Self-Adapting CAD Software
An approach for enhancing CAD and other interactive software is described. The goals of the approach are bifold, to customize complex programs which employ computer graphics, and to improve...
An Interactive Shell for Batch Processors
Many programs have been and are currently being developed in which the input data files or associated databases must be developed independently of the main program. This paper describes...
Structural and Architectural Maintenance Management by Micro-computer
When a new Senior Vice-President for University College, the nonmedical portion of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, was appointed in 1984, one of the problems encountered by the...
Seismic Structural Optimization and Computer Programs
A generic system has been developed for the geometric design of highway retaining walls. Merging the three-dimensional coordinate geometry capabilities of the roadway design system (RDS)...
Analysis and Optimum Design of Nondeterministic Structures under Random Loads
The importance of analyzing and designing structural systems by using a reliability-based approach is emphasized, including system safety requirements with regard to both serviceability...
Structural Design Optimization of Nonlinear Response With Adina
Procedures for sensitivity analysis and optimization of nonlinear structural systems with the computer program ADINA are described. Formulation of the structural optimization problem and...
Animated Response of Dynamic Systems
Understanding how a simple structural system responds to a dynamically applied load is a difficult concept for most students to grasp. The fundamental mathematical theory of this behavior...
The Software Implications of Supercomputer Architecture
A simple look at computer architecture from a computational (and hence user) perspective is observed. A relation between computer architecture and software development is explored. Today's...
Attached Scientific Computers in Structural Analysis
The design and analysis process is explored in terms of its requirements for user decision-making and interaction. This is presented as a three-phase procedure: (1) the engineer developing...
Reflections on the Impact of Computer Science on Engineering
Over the past several decades, the use of computers in engineering has grown significantly. Over this same time period, work in the relatively new discipline of Computer Science has impacted...
Water and Wastewater, Time to Automate?
Water and wastewater engineers have been slow to adopt a full circle systems approach to automated monitoring and control. Such a technical tactic for controlling water and wastewater...
Construction Company Builds a Computer System
The case history of the computerization of a construction company is presented. The report reviews the stages that the company went through from manual operations for bookkeeping, estimating,...
Evaluation of Safety Alternatives by Benefit/Cost Analysis
There is an increasing awareness of the need to use limited highway safety funds on projects that offer the greatest benefits. This paper describes the development and application of a...
Selection of Performance Levels for Longitudinal Barriers
There is a demand within the highway community for multi-service level safety features, including traffic barriers. The need has become more acute in recent years as revenues decline and...
Failure Classifications
A detailed description of the failure classification with respect to the constructed facilities is presented. Author is of the opinion that most reports of failure even of an extensive...
Data Collection and Information Dissemination: Current Efforts and Challenges
The need for the civil engineering community to collect and disseminate information on failures has been discussed widely. It appears that in recent years our profession's reluctance to...
Systems Model for Water Supply Following Earthquakes
The water supply for San Francisco is described with emphasis on the city's auxiliary water distribution network, which provides fire protection for the most heavily built-up...
What is an Expert System
Knowledge-based expert systems (KBES) have created much excitement in the civil engineering computer user community. KBES evoke expectations of full-blown Artificial Intelligence (AI)...
Problem Solving Using Expert System Techniques
There are basically two approaches to problem solving currently used in expert systems: the derivation approach and the formation approach. The derivation approach involves deriving a...
Expert System Tools for Civil Engineering Applications
Expert system software tools have played a major role in expediting program development. Some problems should not and possibly cannot be solved by current expert system technology. For...
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