Web Services in Civil and Structural Engineering Simulations

Civil and structural engineering have had a long and successful history in adopting computing technologies, from computer graphics, CAD, finite element analysis to virtual simulations. As computer hardware and software technologies continue to advance, demands for functionalities of engineering software have also grown. Computer programs have become ever more sophisticated and complex. The desire for integrated solution in the engineering industry had led to a fundamental shift in software development process from focusing on programming in the early days of computing towards focusing on software integration. The tremendous advancements in network and communication technologies, especially with the emergence of the Internet, have not only revolutionized our way of life but also significantly impacted engineering practices and business transactions. Serving as a communication infrastructure, the Internet allows easy access to distributed software services residing in multiple locations. The computing environment has been transformed from stand-alone desktop application to an interconnected web of autonomous services accessible inside and outside the boundary of an organization. In general terms, a web service can be described as a specific function that is delivered over the Internet to perform a service or to provide some specific information. The web service model has become a favorite approach for integrating software applications and extending the functionalities of an application by making it interoperable with other services. This paper presents selected examples, including finite element computing, project management and model-based CAD simulations, to illustrate the potential use of the Internet infrastructure to support interoperation between software applications.