Artificial intelligence applications in transportation geotechnics

This paper presents a brief overview of artificial intelligence applications in transportation geotechnics, highlighting new approaches and current research directions, including issues related to data mining interpretability and prediction capacities. Several practical applications to earthworks, including the compaction management and quality control aspects of embankments, as well as pavement evaluation, design and management, and the mechanical behaviour of jet grouting material, are presented to illustrate the advantages of using data mining, including artificial neural networks, support vector machines, and evolutionary computation techniques in this domain. This study also propose a novel simplified compaction table for reusing geomaterials and compaction management in embankments and applied one- and two-dimensional advanced sensitivity analyses to better interpret the proposed data-driven models for the prediction of the deformability modulus of jet grouting field samples. These applications show the capabilities of data mining models to address complex problems in transportation geotechnics involving highly nonlinear relationships of data and optimisation needs.FCT, PEst-OE/ECI/UI4047/2011; SFRH/BD/45781/200

Fine sediments as a granular source for civil engineering

International audienceAcross the world, every year, several millions of tons of sediments are dredged in harbours. These sediments, which are sometimes polluted, represent an interesting granular resource for the civil engineering. For this study, fine sediments are chosen because of the difficulties to evacuate them after dredging, in comparison to sands, induced by their high water content, the presence of organic matters, their mechanical behaviour and, in some cases, the presence of pollutants. The paper shows the study carried out with fine sediments from harbours of the north of France. The authors propose recommendations to optimize the re-use of these sediments in considering technical, environmental and economical criteria. A re-use process has been studied in laboratory and tested on field site