Knowledge acquisition and development for formwork selection system

The selection/design of a formwork system for a project is influenced by the building design, site constraints, available resources, the contractor’s experience with different systems, and their availability. Typically, the selection of a formwork system is made by a senior member of the contractor’s organization. The decision is heavily based on that individual’s experience. This experience may limit the selection of a system to one that is not the optimum. This paper describes the development and knowledge acquisition of an expert system developed to assist the formwork selector/designer in making that decision. This tool was developed by systematically capturing the expertise of people involved in all phases of the life of the formwork, from design through erection and concrete placement to its removal. The three stages of the knowledge acquisition, familiarization, elicitation, and organization, are described. The iterative process of building a microcomputer-based expert system is presented.