The design of emergency repairs and the growing inventory of failing or newly repaired retaining walls present a considerable practical problem. For repair work, time and budget constraints are pressing. Available expertise is limited and often dispersed among numerous individuals, so extensive consultation is often required. If an intelligent aid were available, engineers and managers would be able to make better and faster decisions. Described in this paper are the architecture and several modules of an expert system aid for retaining wall rehabilitation design. Such a system could be used by an engineer who is called upon to evaluate a retaining wall failure, conduct a survey of the condition of existing walls, or design a rehabilitation or new construction strategy for a wall. Issues addressed include appropriate problem paradigm models, alternative solution strategies, and reasoning with uncertainty.
Abstract