Fuzzy set based crack diagnosis system for reinforced concrete structures

This paper presents a computer assisted crack diagnosis system for reinforced concrete structures which aids the non-expert to diagnose the cause of cracks at the level of an expert in the general inspection of structures. The system presented adapts fuzzy set theory to reflect fuzzy conditions, both for crack symptoms and characteristics which are difficult to treat using crisp sets. The inputs to the system are mostly linguistic variables concerning the crack symptoms and some numeric data about concrete and environmental conditions. Using these input data and based on built-in rules, the proposed system executes fuzzy inference to evaluate the crack causes under consideration. The built-in rules were constructed by extracting expert knowledge, primarily from technical books about concrete and concrete cracks. We implemented the proposed system in a computer program with a graphic user interface for actual utilization in practical business fields. When applied to cracks actually diagnosed by experts, the proposed system provided results similar to those obtained by experts, and we expect that this system can be used as an effective crack diagnosis tool for both experts and non-experts in the regular inspection of RC structures.