| Research Abstract |
Experiment plays a very important role in the research of structural engineering, serving as a useful means to prove the validity of theories we have developed and also to make us aware of the true behavior of structures and their components. Numerous tests have been carried out along this line, and useful findings have been accumulated over many decades. In recent years, the variety of tests increases, and their scales are enlarged significantly, thanks to the development of both hardware and software employed in the experiment. Accordingly, the information provided by recent tests is deemed much richer and complicated than before. Here, a concern, seemingly very serious, arises as to how we can share such rich as well as complicated information with other bodies who have the same interests. Certainly, many researchers, both contemporary and future, should like to refer to experimental information related to their studies. However, unless the type of information that they need can be
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accessed without much troubles, the information, no matter how important it may be, cannot achieve its major role.
This paper, entitled, "Maximization and Knowledge Description of Experimental Information," reports on a project, in which a prototype was invented for the procedures to effectively store precious experimental information and make it available upon request by those who wish to refer it. In this paper, the prototype was developed for the experimental information on the strength and deformation capacity of steel beam-columns. A relational database that contains test results regarding the strength and deformation capacity of steel beam-columns was developed, and a program for handy graphic presentation was devised for prompt acquisition and evaluation of the data. Using this prototype database, accuracy of strength formulas provided in design specifications was calibrated, and it was demonstrated that such a database is extremely effective to quantify the accuracy as well as the degree of variation of those formulas. Numerical sensitivity analysis was also carried out, providing us with information on the degree of effects of various parameters on the strength and deformation capacity of steel beam-columns. The results obtained were used to examine the correlation between the test and analytical results. The examination, in turn, was found to lead us to obtaining new ideas on the further application of the database. To facilitate the interchange in information between the test and analytical data, the results obtained from the analysis were described and stored in the format of production rule. Less
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