Prediction of Undrained Lateral Load Capacity of Piles in Cohesion Soil Using Genetic Programming

In many engineering project piles shall be designed for lateral loads due to earth pressure, earthquake or wind forces on the structures. This requires estimation of ultimate loads based on which safe working loads will be assessed. In this research, a genetic programming (GP) approach is employed to predict the lateral load capacity of piles in cohesion soils. The GP model requires an input terminal set that consists of diameter of pile, embedment length of pile, eccentricity of load and undrained shear strength of soil. The output terminal set consists of the lateral load capacity of pile. For developing the genetic model GP software (GPLAB) provided by MATLAB was employed for the analysis. Furthermore, GP simulations were compared with the experimental results as well as the models proposed by other investigators. The comparison of the results indicates that the proposed approach was accurate and robust in representing the lateral load capacity of piles in cohesion soils.