PREDICTION OF CALIFORNIA BEARING RATIO OF FINE-GRAINED SOIL STABILIZED WITH ADMIXTURES USING SOFT COMPUTING SYSTEMS

Abstract

The main focus of this study was to predict California bearing ratio (CBR) of stabilized soils with quarry dust (QD) and lime as well as rice husk ash (RHA) and lime. In the laboratory, stabilized soils were prepared at varying mixing proportions of QD as 0, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50%; lime of 2, 4 and 6% with varying curing periods of 0, 7 and 28 days. Moreover, admixtures of RHA with 0, 4, 8, 12 and 16%; lime of 0, 3, 4 and 5% was used to stabilize soil with RHA and lime. In this study, soft computing systems like SLR, MLR, ANN and SVM were implemented for the prediction of CBR of stabilized soils. The result of ANN reveals QD, lime and OMC were the best independent variables for the stabilization of soil with QD, while, RHA, lime, CP, OMC and MDD for the stabilization of soil with RHA. In addition, SVM proved QD and lime as well as RHA, lime, CP, OMC and MDD were the best independent variables for the stabilization of soil with QD and RHA, respectively. The optimum content of QD was found 40% and lime 4% at varying curing periods to get better CBR of stabilized soil with QD and lime. Moreover, the optimum content of RHA was also found 12% and lime 4% at varying curing periods to get better CBR of stabilized soil with RHA and lime. The observed CBR and selected independent variables can be expressed by a series of developed equations with reasonable degree of accuracy and judgment from SLR and MLR analysis. The model ANN showed comparatively better values of CBR with satisfactory limits of prediction parameters (RMSE, OR, R2 and MAE) as compared to SLR, MLR and SVM. Therefore, model ANN can be considered as best fitted for the prediction of CBR of stabilized soils. Finally, it might be concluded that the selected optimum content of admixtures and newly developed techniques of soft computing systems will further be used of other researchers to stabilize soil easily and then predict CBR of stabilized soils.