Trial visualization of fast reactor design knowledge

Yoshikawa, Shinji ; Minami, Masaki*; Takahashi, Tadao*

In design problems of large-scale systems like fast breeder reactors, inter-relations among design specifications are very important where a selected specification option is transferred to other specification selections as a premise to be taken account in engineering judgments. These inter-relations are also important in design case studies with hypothetical adoption of rejected design options for evaluation of deviation propagations among design specifications. Some of these rejected options have potential worth for future reconsideration by some circumstance changes (e.g., advanced simulations to exclude needs for mock-up tests, etc), to contribute for flexibility in system designs. In this study, a computer software is built to visualize design problem structure by representing engineering knowledge nodes on individual specification selections along with inter-relations of design specifications, to validate the knowledge representation method and to derive open problems.