A tool for the study of materials combining qualitative and quantitative models

This paper presents some work being carried out with the aim to develop a tool for reasoning automatically, from the mechanical point of view, about visco-elastic materials. In the development of the system three basic steps can be singled out. First, the knowledge base, which consists of models and of their simulated qualitative responses to standard experiments, is automatically built. Then, a diagnostic inference step allows to classify an actual material, given its behavior, and to identify its quantitative model. Finally the behavior of the material upon any load can be simulated either qualitatively or quantitatively.