Assessment of the Undrained Shear Strength and Settlement of Organic Soils under Embankment Loading Using Artificial Neural Networks

Abstract

In engineering practice, due to the high compressibility and very low shear strength of organic soils, it is difficult to construct an embankment on organic subsoil. High variability and significant change in geotechnical parameters cause difficulties in predicting the behavior of organic soils under embankment loading. The aim of the paper was to develop empirical relationships used in the preliminary design for evaluating the settlement and undrained shear strength of organic subsoil loaded by embankment based on data obtained from four test sites. Statistical multiple regression models were developed for evaluating the settlement in time and undrained shear strength in time individually for peat and gyttja. Neural networks to predict the settlement and undrained shear strength in time for peat and gyttja simultaneously as double-layer subsoils as well as a separate neural network for peat and a separate neural network for gyttja as single-layer subsoils were also developed. The vertical stress, thickness, water content, initial undrained shear strength of peat and gyttja, and time were used as the independent variables. Artificial neural networks are characterized by greater prediction accuracy than statistical multiple regression models. Multiple regression models predict dependent variables with maximum relative errors of about 35% to about 60%, and neural networks predict output variables with maximum relative errors of about 25% to about 30%.