Expert System to Control Construction Problems in Flexible Pavements

: Highway engineers face complicated problems that are influenced by various conditions during the construction of flexible highway pavements. Identifying such problems and recommending effective solutions demand considerable engineering expertise, which is difficult to obtain at all construction sites. Thus, the development of an expert system can effectively help engineers control and analyze such problems. In addition, an expert system can effectively archive the storage and distribution of expertise among pavement engineers. This article describes the development and evaluation of such an expert system. The first stage in the development of the proposed system was the elicitation of knowledge from written sources and from experts through literature reviews and interviews, respectively. The acquired knowledge was analyzed and classified and then represented in a form containing rules; the rules were subsequently coded as software. This article describes the development and evaluation of the Expert System for the Control of Construction Problems in Flexible Highway Pavements.