Abstract—The development of intelligent computational tools provides new opportunities to exploit various potentialities of computers. Many fields have taken significant advantage of the recent advancements in computing technology to adapt, apply and enhance the way people learn and solve real-world problems. In this paper, three case studies are presented which show how the development of knowledge-based computer applications can be handy to both understand and solve structural engineering numerical problems. Moreover, such tools can be useful teaching aids and can facilitate interactive learning techniques being used across the globe. The first case study application is a graphical user interface (GUI) developed in MATLAB 2009 environment for dynamic analysis of a generalized single degree of freedom system against specified force vector or ground motion. The second example is from the field of reinforced concrete design developed in Visual Basic environment for generating moment curvature relationship of reinforced concrete beams. The third case study application is also developed in MATLAB R2009a environment using GUIDE module to automate a recently proposed empirical method of concrete mix design. These interfaces are developed in a simple and interactive manner for convenient visualization of complete step-by-step process aiming not only to provide an easy tool for what-if analysis, but also to develop a learning attitude among the end users.
Index Terms—Computational tools, visual basic, computer applications, structural engineering, mix design, MATLAB, GUI.
Fawad Ahmed Najam is with Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand (e-mail: fawadnajam@hotmail.com).
Rao Arsalan Khushnood is with Politecnico Di Torino, Italy (e-mail: rao_nust@yahoo.com)
Syed Ali Rizwan is with the Structural Engineering Department, NUST Institute of Civil Engineering (NICE), National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST), Sector H-12, Islamabad, Pakistan (e-mail: syedalirizwan@hotmail.com).
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Cite: Fawad Ahmed Najam, Rao Arsalan Khushnood, and Syed Ali Rizwan, "Paradigms for Employing Interactive Computing Tools and Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) in Structural Engineering Problems," International Journal of Engineering and Technology vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 23-31, 2016.
