Using Artificial Neural Networks for Predication of Some Properties of an Iraqi Gypseous Soils

Using Artificial Neural Networks For Evaluation of Collapse Potential of Some Iraqi Gypseous Soils

KHALID R. MAHMOOD1 and JUNEID AZIZ2

1 Assist. Prof. Dr. Civil Eng. Dep. Anbar University

2 M.Sc. Civil engineering- Email: juneid07@yahoo.com

Abstract. In this research, Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) will be used in an attempt to predict collapse potential of gypseous soils. Two models are built one for collapse potential obtained by single oedemeter test and the other is for collapse potential obtained by double oedemeter test. A database of laboratory measurements for collapse potential is used. Six parameters are considered to have the most significant impact on the magnitude of collapse potential and are be used as an input to the models. These include the 1.Gypsum content, 2.Initial void ratio, 3.Total unit weight, 4.Initial water content, 5.Dry unit weight, 6.Soaking pressure. The output model will be the corresponding collapse potential. Multi-layer perceptron trainings using back propagation algorithm are used in this work. A number of issues in relation to ANN construction such as the effect of ANN geometry and internal parameters on the performance of ANN models are investigated. Information on the relative importance of the factors affecting the collapse potential are presented and practical equations for prediction of collapse potential of single oedemeter test and double oedemeter test in gypseous soils are developed. It was found that ANNs have the ability to predict the collapse potential of single oedemeter test and double oedemeter test in gypseous soil samples with a good degree of accuracy. The ANN models developed to study the impact of the internal network parameters on model performance indicate that ANN performance is sensitive to the number of hidden layer nodes, momentum terms, learning rate, and transfer functions. The sensitivity analysis indicated that for the models the results indicate that the initial void...