Combined Symbolic‐Numeric Explosion Damage Assessment for Structures

Abstract

A combined symbolic‐numeric distributed approach has been developed for assessing damage inflicted upon structures by explosions, determining the sequence of structural responses, estimating the causes and applied loads, and providing recommendations regarding the future service of the structure. Symbolic knowledge processing methods simulate an expert engineer's high‐level reasoning processes, and numeric processing methods are called upon to verify hypotheses or to supply missing data. A modular distributed processing environment is created in which numeric and symbolic processes can interact and proceed simultaneously. This system uses symbolic reasoning both to effectively interact with the engineer and to control the flow of an analysis. The technical details of this assessment system are presented and discussed, and examples are provided for illustrating the approach and its effectiveness. The combined system provided good results for the test cases considered, and corresponding conclusions and recommendations are drawn.