What to Do When a Failure Occurs
When a major building problem involving structural failure occurs, action should begin immediately to determine the damage or failure and detect the underlying problem. This paper will...
An Historical Perspective of Failures of Civil Engineering Works
The blight of failures has smitten civil engineering works since ancient times. An examination of historic cases reveals relationships to contemporary cases that are useful in guiding...
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...
Quality Assurance/Quality Control: Alternative Approaches to Reduce Failures
Efforts to achieve quality on construction projects usually center around code-compliant design, thorough specifications, and careful inspection. The alarming increase in both the frequency...
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...
Seismic Resistance of an Elevated Water Tank?A Case Study
Current knowledge of earthquake risk and structural response has raised concern about the safety of elevated water storage tanks which were constructed several decades ago. This paper...
Seismic Risk Analysis of LNG Storage Tanks
This paper presents an approach to the seismic safety review of existing LNG storage tanks. The approach considers the seismic hazards from ground motion, surface fault rupture, and soil...
A Case Study of the Behavior of Seaport Facilities During the 1978 Miyagi-Ken-Oki Earthquake
This paper assesses seismic response characteristics of seaport facilities during the 1978 Miyagi-Ken-Oki earthquake by (a) compiling and assessing documented information from post-earthquake...
Attaching Steel Members to Reinforced Concrete Elements
A variety of structural systems have been devised to strengthen existing buildings for improved seismic resistance. Strengthening methods currently in use for reinforced concrete structures...
The 1983 Landslide Dam at Thistle, Utah
The Thistle, Utah, landslide began rapid movement on April 13, 1983. The landslide, a reactivation of an estimated 22 multiplied by 10**6 m**3 of old landslide debris, blocked Spanish...
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...
Attributes and Characteristics of Expert Systems
This paper discusses some of the characteristics of expert systems, with emphasis on the incorporation of these attributes in the development stage. It is suggested that the scope of expert...
Expert Systems in an Engineering-Construction Firm
Although it has been generally accepted that the field of engineering provides a wide variety of potential applications for expert systems, most developments have been academic in nature....
Howsafe: A Microcomputer-Based Expert System to Evaluate the Safety of a Construction Firm
This paper discusses the development of the Howsafe expert system as a case history in knowledge engineering on microcomputers. The focus is on issues of knowledge representation, reasoning...
An Expert System for Construction Schedule Analysis
This paper describes a prototypical expert system for the analysis and evaluation of construction scheduling networks from an owners' perspective. The knowledge base, which...
Application of Expert Systems to Construction Management Decision-Making and Risk Analysis
Application of expert systems in the area of construction management decision-making and risk analysis are explored. Decision-making under uncertainty is one of the attributes of human...
Design of an Expert System for the Rating of Highway Bridges
A microcomputer-based expert system used to determine the effects of vehicles and overloaded vehicles on simple span bridges with reinforced concrete deck and prestressed concrete I-beams...
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