Neural Network Modeling of Resilient Modulus Using Routine Subgrade Soil Properties

Artificial neural network (ANN) models are developed in this study to correlate resilient modulus with routine properties of subgrade soils and state of stress for pavement design application. A database is developed containing grain size distribution, Atterberg limits, standard Proctor, unconfined compression, and resilient modulus results for 97 soils from 16 different counties in Oklahoma. Of these, 63 soils (development data set) are used in training, and the remaining 34 soils (evaluation data set) from two different counties are used in the evaluation of the developed models. A commercial software, STATISTICA 7.1, is used to develop four different feedforward-type ANN models: linear network, general regression neural network, radial basis function network, and multilayer perceptrons network (MLPN). In each of these models, the input layer consists of seven nodes, one node for each of the independent variables, namely moisture content (w), dry density (γd), plasticity index (PI), percent passing sieve No. 200 (P200), unconfined compressive strength (Uc), deviatoric stress (σd), and bulk stress (θ). The output layer consists of only one node—resilient modulus (MR). After the architecture is set, the development data set is fed into the model for training. The strengths and weaknesses of the developed models are examined by comparing the predicted MR values with the experimental values with respect to the R2 values. Overall, the MLPN model with two hidden layers was found to be the best model for the present development and evaluation data sets. This model as well as the other models could be refined using an enriched database.