Abstract
Geotechnical site investigations are an essential prerequisite for reliable foundation designs. However, there is relatively little quantitative guidance for planning optimal investigations, including the choice of testing location. This study uses a genetic algorithm to find the ideal testing locations of various numbers of boreholes with respect to pile foundation performance. The optimization has been done separately for single-layer and multi-layer soils, which infer what is best for obtaining soil material properties and delineating layer boundaries, respectively. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to find the genetic algorithm parameters that result in high quality solutions within a reasonable timeframe. While boreholes arranged in a regular grid pattern provide good performance in many cases, there are instances where optimized locations provide a cost saving of A$2 million, or 4.2% of the construction cost. A set of recommended testing guidelines is provided.
Highlights
Site investigations, consisting of soil testing, are essential for determining subsurface material properties relevant to geotechnical engineering works, such as foundations
This study has demonstrated that a genetic algorithm (GA) can be used to optimize borehole
Comparing the improvement between the single-layer and multi-layer scenarios, the cost savings are noticeably higher in the latter case
Summary
Site investigations, consisting of soil testing, are essential for determining subsurface material properties relevant to geotechnical engineering works, such as foundations. It has been shown that variation in placement of a single borehole can impact total project cost in excess of A$500,000, or 25% of the building’s construction cost [1]. Optimal placement of a small number of boreholes has been shown to outperform suboptimal placement of a larger number [2]. As such, testing location has a significant impact on foundation performance. Despite this, there is little research regarding optimal test placement relative to a foundation. There are various standards and suggestions currently available, these are not soil-specific nor project-specific. The authors of [3,4]
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