The paper presents an ontology-based system for retrieval and semantic organization of knowledge
in the domain of existing bridges. The main goal of the work is to formalize knowledge about multidisciplinary
aspects in bridge engineering, material sciences and testing in a set of ontologies. The addressed domain
covers typical bridge structures, deterioration processes, typical defects, causes, materials and test (measurement)
methods. Ontologies represent a novel information retrieval and processing system for simpler reuse,
sharing and processing of information. Although basically developed in the domain of biomedicine, the
free open source ontology editor Protégé (2012) was applied to design ontologies in the technical domain of
existing bridges. Protégé follows worldwide standardized rules established by the www-consortium (W3C).
The ontology is exemplarily populated with knowledge and data from the domain of historic iron and steel
bridges retrieved from own tests and measurements carried out at the Federal Institute for Materials Research
and Testing (Helmerich 2005). Typical causes, deterioration processes and defects are linked to typical structures,
sensitive structural details and appropriate methods to detect these defects. All data is formalized to machine
readable and processable information and at the same time understandable by humans. An increasing
number of case studies or new findings in the domain can enrich the ontology any time and allows the immediate
access to the recent findings by other researchers, owners, bridge inspectors or users. Fast knowledge extraction
from the system allows inspectors, owners and structural engineers to learn about typical deterioration
and defects from available lessons. Then, they can faster identify weak elements or details in historic steel
bridges and optimize inspection and assessment strategies. BrOntEx is open for further extension to any
bridge type and material in the future.