CAE Artificial Neural Network Applied to the Design of Incrementally Launched Prestressed Concrete Bridges

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Bridges are typically designed by reputable, specialized engineering and design companies with years of experience. In these firms, experienced engineers share and pass on their knowledge to younger colleagues. However, when these experts retire, some of the knowledge is lost forever. As a subset of artificial intelligence methods, artificial neural networks (ANNs) can solve the problem of acquiring, transferring, and preserving specialized expert knowledge. This article describes the possible application of CAE ANN to acquire knowledge and to assist in the design of incrementally launched prestressed concrete bridges. Therefore, multidimensional graphs in the form of iso-curves of equal values were created, allowing practicing engineers to understand complex relationships between design parameters. The graphs also contain information about the reliability of the results, which is defined by an estimated parameter. The general rule is that results based on a larger number of actual data points are more reliable. Finally, an ANN BD assistant is proposed as an application that assists engineers and designers in the early stages of design and/or established engineers and designers in variant studies and design parameter optimization.