An integrated database and expert system for failure mechanism identification: Part II—the system and performance testing

An integrated database and expert system has been developed for assisting the human analyst in identifying the failure mechanism of mechanical components. The system comprises six major modules: database and management system; case maintenance; knowledge acquisition and editing; expert system; explanation and test-recommendation facilities, and user interface. The knowledge acquisition and editing module has been detailed in Part I of a two-part paper [6]. The overall system and the details of other modules are described here. The system has been implemented using the M4 expert system shell, Microsoft Access database software, and Visual Basic. Illustrative examples are used to show the capability of the system. Also reported are the results obtained from four different tests to determine the system performance.