Knowledge-based nonmonotonic reasoning process in ship compartment design system

Abstract

Recently marine pollution has been a hot issue in shipbuilding fields especially in the design of crude oil tanker ships. There are many significant constraints to be considered at the design stage. In this paper an expert system to support compartment design of a crude oil tanker is developed so as to treat many of the constraints and design changes according to their conflicts effectively. The nonmonotonic reasoning concept helps a designer to perform his/her design in spite of complicated and cross-related design constraints. In addition, this system focuses on the integration of the knowledge base, database, case base, and CAE programs, hence reliable solutions can be assured. The validation of the system was examined and verified by applying the system to the 250,000 ton crude oil tanker (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.