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Title: An Expert System for Reinforced Concrete Structural Damage Quantification

Author(s): P. Gulkan and A. Yakut

Publication: Symposium Paper

Volume: 162

Issue:

Appears on pages(s): 53-72

Keywords: buildings; damage; earthquakes; reinforced concrete; Structural Research

DOI: 10.14359/1423

Date: 8/1/1996

Abstract:
Objective evaluation of structural damage in buildings which have been subjected to strong ground motions is an undertaking in which expert knowledge and the ability to process correlated but fuzzy information in a consistent way must be blended. Often, in the immediate aftermath of earthquakes, field data is collected by survey teams whose expertise is variable. The use of knowledge-based systems capable of reaching an unequivocal decision on the damage state of a given building on the basis of queries arranged in a consistent hierarchical order would remove human subjectivity. This paper describes the internal design of an expert system called EPEDA, which is used as a tool for making a numerical ranking of damage in reinforced concrete buildings. Damage to individual elements is quantified on the basis of severity, relative member importance, and number of affected elements. Factors contributory in nature to the damage are summed with this score, as are scores expressing the overall system vulnerability. The final score is expressed as a number ranging from zero to 100. An example case is worked out to illustrate how the system works.