Engineering Geology 169 (2014) 50–60

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Engineering Geology
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enggeo

A novel approach to predicting Young's modulus of jet grouting

laboratory formulations over time using data mining techniques
Joaquim Tinoco a,⁎, A. Gomes Correia a, Paulo Cortez b
a
Centre for Territory, Environment and Construction, School of Engineering, University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal
b
Centro Algoritmi, Dep. de Sistemas de Informação, School of Engineering, University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Many geotechnical projects today have demonstrated a need for improved soil foundation properties, namely
Received 15 February 2013 physical and mechanical properties. There are currently several soil improvement methods available for this
Received in revised form 10 September 2013 task, including jet grouting (JG) technology. In this method, a slurry grout is injected into the subsoil at high pres-
Accepted 26 November 2013
sure and velocity to destroy the soil structure. The injected slurry (normally cement) and the fragmented soil to-
Available online 4 December 2013
gether create an improved soil mass with better strength, deformability and permeability characteristics.
Keywords:
However, due to the inherent geological complexity and high number of parameters involved in this improve-
Soilcrete ment process, the design of its physical and mechanical properties is a very complex task, especially in the initial
Jet grouting project stages and in small-scale geotechnical projects, when information is scarce. Consequently, the economics
Young's modulus and quality of the improvement can be adversely affected, and it would be beneficial to develop an accurate
Data mining model to simulate the effects of the different parameters involved in the JG process. In many geotechnical struc-
Support vector machines tures, advanced design incorporates the ultimate limit state and the serviceability limit state design criteria, for
Sensitivity analysis which the uniaxial compressive strength and deformability properties of the improved soils are needed. A previ-
ous study by the author proposed some regression models based on data mining (DM) techniques to predict the
uniaxial compressive strength of JG laboratory formulations (JGLF) over time. In the present study, similar tools
such as multiple regression, artificial neural networks, support vector machines and functional networks are
trained to predict the deformability modulus of JGLF over time. Additionally, the mathematical expressions pro-
posed by the Eurocode 2 and Model Code 1990 that are currently used to estimate concrete stiffness over time are
adapted to the JG material. The results show that the novel soft computing model is more accurate and capable of
learning the complex relationships between JGLF deformability and its contributing factors. A novel visualisation
approach is also applied to the work based on a sensitivity analysis method. Such an approach enables the iden-
tification of the most important input parameters and their average influence on deformability predictions for
JGLF. Moreover, through the application of DM techniques, a novel approach capable to predict JGLF stiffness
based on its unconfined compressive strength and three other variables related to soil and mix properties is
proposed.
© 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction and background et al., 2010). Chemical grouting was a very popular method in the 1960s,
but disadvantages such as its irregular shape and the low strength of the
Given the growth of the human population and Earth's finite re- soil mass forced specialists to develop new soft-soil improvement
sources, we are being forced to use soft soils as foundations, and there method. One of these new methods is JG technology, presented by the
is a need to improve these soils' physical and mechanical properties Yamakoda brothers around 1965 and continually improved since then
(Coronado et al., 2011). Moreover, there are many other situations (Xanthakos et al., 1994). This method is characterised by its great
where ground improvement is required such as in road constructions versatility, allowing designers to improve the mechanical and physical
or historical building rehabilitations (Falcão et al., 2000; Gazzarrini properties of several soil types (ranging from coarse- to fine-grained
et al., 2005). Various grouting methods have been applied for soil im- soils) and create elements with different geometric shapes (e.g., col-
provement in recent years, including compacting grouting, permeation umns or panels). JG can be used in tunnelling, civil, dam and mining
grouting, hydraulic fracture grouting and jet grouting (JG) (Nikbakhtan projects to improve soil properties, decrease permeability in cofferdams
or cutoff walls and increase the stability of soil or rocks in slopes
(Nikbakhtan et al., 2010).
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: jabtinoco@civil.uminho.pt (J. Tinoco), agc@civil.uminho.pt
The fundamental process of JG involves injecting a grout at high
(A.G. Correia), pcortez@dsi.uminho.pt (P. Cortez). pressure and velocity into the subsoil (Shen et al., 2012). The jet erodes
URL: http://www3.dsi.uminho.pt/pcortez/Home.html (J. Tinoco). and combines the fragmented soil with a slurry (normally cement),

0013-7952/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2013.11.015
 J. Tinoco et al. / Engineering Geology 169 (2014) 50–60 51

producing an improved soil mass that is also known as soilcrete. This E0

method begins by drilling a borehole until the intended depth for the
improvement initiation is reached. Next, a water–cement grout with σ Esec50%
or without other fluids (such as air or water) is injected at high speed
through small nozzles placed at the end of the rod, which is continually Etg50%
rotated and slowly removed from the borehole. The high pressure of the Ef
jet erodes the soil adjacent to the borehole wall, enabling the penetra-
tion of the injected slurry and its mixture with the fragmented soil.
σf
Some of the most important parameters involved in JG design are
soil type, mixture influx between soil and grout, exiting jet energy
from nozzle, grout flow rate, rotating speed and lifting speed (Covil
and Skinner, 1994). Particularly, for JET 1 six jetting parameters must
be determined: grout pressure, number and size of nozzles, water/
cement ratio, drill rod lifting rate, and rotational speed. For JET 2, there
are two additional parameters, i.e., air pressure and delivery rate,
while for JET 3 there is a need also to define the water pressure and
water jet nozzle size and number. 50% σf
One of the first steps in JG technology design is the preparation of a
set of laboratory formulations, which are essentially a function of the
soil type to be treated and the project requirements. These formulations
enable the definition of certain JG parameters related to the injected
slurry, such as the grout's water/cement ratio, the quantity of injected
slurry by volume of treated material and the cement and water type.
The remaining parameters affecting each JG system are evaluated only
with the creation of test columns, given the difficulty of simulating
these parameters in the laboratory. However, limited budgets and
ε50 εf ε
schedule restrictions mean that these formulations are not always pre-
pared and tested. Furthermore, the actual analytical models for the JG Fig. 1. Illustration of the moduli that can be defined in an unconfined compression test
system's design are based essentially on empirical rules (Fang et al., (E0, Esec50%, Etg50% and Ef).
1994) that are often too conservative and can affect the quality and
cost-effectiveness of the improvement. There is a need to develop new
and more reliable approaches to predicting the effects of the different shows the different moduli that can be defined in a non-linear stress–
parameters affecting JG. Such approaches could reduce the number of strain relationship (Gomes Correia, 2004).
laboratory formulations required, optimise the constructive process For practical purposes, the initial modulus at a very small strain (E0)
and improve economic efficiency. This study applies four data mining and the tangent modulus at 50% of the maximum applied stress (Etg50%)
(DM) techniques to address the high number of parameters involved are the two moduli currently used. The first has demonstrated a good
in the JG process and the heterogeneity of soils with which JG is relationship with non-destructive tests with very small deformations,
employed: multiple regression (MR), artificial neural networks such as bender elements or sonic tests, while the second is a key geo-
(ANNs), support vector machines (SVMs) and functional networks technical parameter that defines the deformability properties of soil–
(FNs). These soft computing systems are powerful tools for analysing cement mixtures used in design and quality control. A strong relation-
and extracting information from raw data, enabling the identification ship is observed between E0 and Etg50% (R2 = 0.89) after comparing
of complex relationships between several input variables and the target these two moduli for all the tested samples for which such data are
output. Indeed, there several successful cases where these tools were available, as depicted in Fig. 2. There are also many more existing
used to solve complex problems in different knowledge areas, including records related to E0 (188 records against 48 records of Etg50%), as
in geotechnical engineering domain (Yesiloglu-Gultekin et al., 2013). shown in Table 1, which summarises the number of records related to
Advanced design strategies incorporate the ultimate limit state E0 and Etg50% and the number of different formulations. It is for these
(ULS) and serviceability limit state (SLS) design criteria in many geo- two reasons that the E0 modulus is used as the reference in this study
technical projects, for which the uniaxial compressive strength and on JGLF stiffness.
deformability properties of the project site's improved soils are re- The deformability modulus of each experimental sample is obtained
quired. This trains the four previously enumerated DM algorithms to by performing unconfined compression tests with a sample strain in-
predict Young's modulus of JG laboratory formulations (JGLF) over strumentation (Gomes Correia et al., 2009), measuring the local defor-
time. Additionally, mathematical expressions from the Eurocode 2 mations of the samples with LDTs (local deformation transducers) and
(EC2) and Model Code 1990 (MC90), which are currently used to esti- LVDTs (linear variable differential transformers) as shown in Fig. 3.
mate the stiffness of concrete over time, are also adapted to JG material. The input variables are chosen based on the expert knowledge relat-
The results obtained from the predictive models are presented and ed to soil–cement mixtures (Shibazaki, 2004) and the author's experi-
compared, and the key parameters affecting JGLF stiffness prediction ence from previous work (Tinoco et al., 2009) and include the water/
are identified, compared and discussed. Moreover, a novel approach is cement ratio (W/C), age of the mixture (t, days), relationship between
proposed to correlate JGLF stiffness with its strength. the mixture porosity and volumetric content of the cement (n/(Civ)d),
cement content of the mixture (%C), percentage of sand (%Sand),
percentage of silt (%Silt), percentage of clay (%Clay) and percentage of
2. Jet grouting data organic matter (%OM). The main statistics for both the input and target
variables are summarised in Table 2.
The data used to train the models presented in Section 4 are taken Soil samples are collected from the different test sites employed in
from a large experimental programme carried out at the University of this study and subjected to laboratory tests to obtain a physical charac-
Minho with the goal of analysing the influence of several parameters re- terisation of the natural soils used in the JGLF preparation. Although all
lated to the mechanical properties of JG laboratory mixtures. Fig. 1 the soils are of a clayey nature, they contain different percentages of
52 J. Tinoco et al. / Engineering Geology 169 (2014) 50–60

y = 0.6879 ⋅ x
R 2 = 0.89
4
Etg50%, GPa
3
2
1

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
E0, GPa

Fig. 2. Relationship between the E0 and Etg50% of JGLF, illustrating a strong correlation.

sand, silt, clay and organic matter. A detailed classification of the natural
soils is provided in Table 3, where the first column denotes the construc-
tion site and the third column shows the number of records that contain
that soil. All laboratory formulations are prepared with cement types
CEM I 42.5R and CEM II 42.5R.
Fig. 4 depicts the histogram for E0 and exhibits a lognormal distribu- Fig. 3. Laboratory specimen instrumented with LDT and LVDT (Gomes Correia et al., 2009).
tion with a mean value of approximately 2.5 GPa and ranging from
0.5 GPa to 8 GPa.
3.1. Predictive models

3. Modelling and evaluation 3.1.1. Data mining models

In MR, several independent variables are linearly combined to pre-
Currently, vast amounts of data are often stored and contain valuable ^. This linear approach is defined
dict the dependent (output) variable y
knowledge (e.g., patterns and trends) that can be used to assist in deci- as (Hastie et al., 2009):
sion making. In the past, data analysis was essentially performed using
classical statistics approaches, which were based on rather rigid models X
I
that required the use of a priori knowledge from experts. However, ^ ¼ β0 þ
y ðβi  xi Þ ð1Þ
these approaches were inadequate for dealing with vast and/or complex i¼1

datasets. Such inadequacy is particularly stressed when analysing high

dimensional multivariate data and nonlinear relationships. Since the
Table 2
1990s, there has been a shift towards data-driven models, where auto- Summary of the main input and output variable statistics in the E0 dataset.
mated computational procedures are used to extract useful knowledge
from raw data, under a DM (Fayyad et al., 1996). DM is often based on Parameter Minimum Maximum Mean Standard deviation

flexible models, such as ANN and SVM that are robust to noise and W/C 0.69 1.11 0.98 0.12
can model a wide scope of relationships, ranging from linear to very t (days) 3.00 56.00 20.22 17.07
n/(Civ)d 51.21 75.04 64.80 7.80
complex relationships (Domingos, 2012). According to CRISP-DM
%C 24.19 64.86 45.10 11.48
methodology (Chapman et al., 2000), the following steps should be per- %Sand 0.00 39.00 13.44 12.82
formed in a real-world DM project (Figure 5): business understanding, %Silt 33.00 57.00 50.57 7.48
data understanding, data preparation, modelling, evaluation, and %Clay 22.50 45.00 35.85 7.48
deployment. Under a regression task, a model is adjusted to a dataset %OM 0.40 8.30 3.51 2.26
E0 (GPa) 0.25 7.89 2.36 1.32
of examples that map I inputs into a given continuous target variable.
Several DM algorithms are used for regression, and each one has its
own advantages. The next section presents a brief description of MR,
ANN, SVM and FN algorithms. Table 3
Soil types present in the collected data.

Table 1 Site Soil type Frequency %Sand %Slit %Clay %MO

Number of records and formulations in existing E0 and Etg50% datasets. A Lean clay (CL) 28 39.0 33.0 27.0 8.3
B Organic lean clay (OL) 18 6.0 57.0 37.0 1.8
E0 Etg50%
C Fat clay (CH) 93 7.0 53.0 40.0 3.2
Number of records 188 48 D Silty clay (CL-ML) 27 25.0 52.5 22.5 0.4
Number of formulations 9 8 E Lean clay (CL) 22 0.0 55.0 45.0 3.9
 J. Tinoco et al. / Engineering Geology 169 (2014) 50–60 53

70
network's performance is sensitive to H (a trade-off between fitting
accuracy and generalisation capability), we adopt a grid search of
{1,2, …,10} during the learning phase to find the best H value. The
60

neural function of the hidden nodes is set to the popular logistic func-
tion 1/(1 + e− x). Hence, the general model of the ANN is given by
(Hastie et al., 2009) elements:
50

!
X
o−1 X
I
^ ¼ wo;0 þ
Frequency
40

y f xi  w j;i þ w j;0  wo;i ð2Þ

j¼Iþ1 i¼1
30

where wj,i represents the weight of the connection from neuron j to unit
I (if j = 0, then it is a bias connection), o corresponds to an output unit,
20

f is a logistic function and I is the number of input neurons.

SVM was initially proposed for classification tasks (Cortes and
Vapnik, 1995), and it became possible to apply SVM to regression
10

tasks after the introduction of the -insensitive loss function (Smola

and Schölkopf, 2004). SVM has theoretical advantages over ANN, such
as the absence of local minima in the learning phase. The main purpose
0

of the SVM is to transform input data into a high-dimensional feature

0 2 4 6 8 space using non-linear mapping (see the right side of Figure 6).
E0 (GPa) The SVM then finds the best linear separating hyperplane (yi = ω0 +
∑m i = 1 ωiϕi(x)), related to a set of support vector points, in the feature
Fig. 4. Histogram for E0.
space. The transformation ϕ depends on a kernel function. The popular
Gaussian kernel is adopted for the SVM models trained in this study
where {x1, …,xi} are input parameters and {β0,β1, …,βi} are the coeffi- because it uses fewer parameters than other kernels (e.g., polynomial
cients to be adjusted, normally using the least square technique. Due kernels): k(x,x′) = exp(− γ ⋅ ‖x − x′‖2), γ N 0. In this context,
to its additive nature, this model is easy to interpret and is widely the regression performance is affected by three parameters: γ, the
used in regression tasks. However, one of its main limitations is its inef- parameter of the kernel; C, a penalty parameter; and , the width of a
ficiency at modelling problems of a non-linear nature. -insensitive zone (Safarzadegan Gilan et al., 2012). The heuristics pro-
The main purpose of an ANN is to simulate basic aspects of the posed by Cherkassky and Ma (Cherkassky and Ma, 2004) are used to de-
human brain (Kenig et al., 2001). The information is processed using fine the firstptwo ffiffiffiffi parameter values, C = 3 (for a standardised output)
the iteration among several neurons (see the left side of Figure 6). and  ¼ σ ^ = N , where σ ^ ¼ 1:5=N  ∑Ni¼1 ðyi −yi Þ2 , yi is the measured
This technique is capable of modelling complex non-linear mappings value, y ^i is the value predicted by a 3-nearest neighbour algorithm
and is robust in exploration of data with noise. It is particularly useful and N is the number of examples. A grid search of {2−15,2−13, …,23} is
for problems that do not have an analytical formulation or when explicit adopted to optimise the kernel parameter γ.
and accessible knowledge does not exist. This study adopts the Unlike ANN, the goal of an FN is to allow the neuron functions to be
multilayer perceptron that contains only feedforward connections, learned and suppress the weights between connections (Castillo et al.,
with one hidden layer containing H processing units. Because the 1998). This new network type is a general framework useful for solving

1. Business 2. Data 3. Data 4. Modeling 5. Evaluation 6. Deployment

Understanding Understanding Preparation
Data Dataset Pre− Models Predictive/
Warehouse/ ??? processed .... Explanatory
Database ?−− .... Knowledge
−−? Dataset ....

Fig. 5. Phases in the CRISP-DM methodology (adapted from Chapman et al. (2000)).

Transformation Ø
Input Layer Hidden Layer Output Layer

x1 Real Space Feature Space

j Wi,j
x2 y

Support
Vectors
x3

Fig. 6. Sample multilayer perceptron (left side) and SVM transformation (right side, adapted from Cortez (2010)).
54 J. Tinoco et al. / Engineering Geology 169 (2014) 50–60

I
x x f
F F
y u y f + f -1 u
F F
z z f
I
a b
Fig. 7. Example of the generalised associative FN: a) initial network and b) equivalent simplified network (Castillo et al., 1998).

a wide range of problems in statistics and engineering applications ψ = {1,ex,e− x, …,emx,e− mx}; or ψ = {1, cos(x), …, cosl(x), sinl(x)},
(Castillo et al., 2001; Li et al., 2001) and has been successfully used to m = 2l, where m is the number of elements in the combination of line-
solve both prediction (Alonso-Betanzos et al., 2004) and classification arly independent function sets. We can use a known optimisation tech-
(Zhou et al., 2005) problems. Its neural functions can be multivariate nique to learn the parameters in Eq. (3), such as a least squares
and multi-argument, and it is also possible to use different learnable estimation, the conjugate gradient, iterative last squares, minimax or
functions instead of fixed functions. Moreover, there is no need to asso- maximum likelihood estimation. The final step in the implementation
ciate weights with the connections between nodes because the learning process is to select and validate the best model.
is achieved by the neural functions. Notably, these functions are not ar- In this study, we use FN to solve the following generic expression:
bitrary, but rather subject to strong constraints to satisfy the compatibil-
I
ity conditions imposed by the existence of multiple links between the ^ ¼ β0  ∏ xαi i
y ð4Þ
last input layer and the same output units. There are some advantages i¼1
to FN when compared with ANN (Zhou et al., 2005). Unlike ANN, FN
can reproduce certain physical characteristics that lead to the corre- where {x1, …,xi} are the input parameters and {β0,α1, …,αi} are the co-
sponding network in a natural way. However, such reproduction takes efficients to be adjusted. The following minimisation problem is used to
place only if an expression with a physical meaning inside the function learn the coefficients in Eq. (4):
database is used. Additionally, estimation of the network parameters
X
N N 
X I
2
can be performed by resolving a linear system of equations, which 2 α
minimizing Q ¼ δk ¼ yk −β0  ∏ xi i : ð5Þ
returns a fast and unique solution in which the global minimum is al- k¼1 k¼1 i¼1
ways achieved. FN and ANN have similar structures, but they also
have important differences. For example, the selection of an FNs initial The statistical R environment (Team, 2008) and rminer library
topology is normally based on the problem domain, whereas an ANN (Cortez, 2010) are used to implement the MR, ANN and SVM models
searches several topologies and chooses one using an optimal criterion. and are particularly suited to the latter two algorithms. The formulation,
The initial topology in FN can be further simplified using functional implementation and resolution of the FN model are performed in the
equations, and its neural functions can be multidimensional and set free version of the GAMS (GAMS Development Corporation, 2012).
during the learning phase. FN incorporates different neural functions
that are normally functions from a given family, such as polynomial or 3.1.2. EC2 and MC90 models
exponential, and they are not restricted to a linear combination of in- In addition to the four DM algorithms explained above, mathemati-
puts. Furthermore, neuron outputs can be connected, which is not the cal expressions from the Eurocode 2 (CEN, 2004) and Model code 1990
case in a standard ANN. Fig. 7 shows an example of the associative func- (CEB-FIP, 1991), widely used to estimate the strength and stiffness of
tional network. The structure of an FN consists of a layer of input-storing concrete over time, are adapted for use with the JG material due to the
units; a layer of output-storing units; one or more layers of processing similarities of the two materials. According to EC2, the stiffness of con-
units, which evaluate a set of input values coming from the previous crete can be estimated over time by the following expression:
layer and deliver a set of output values to the next layer; zero, one or
 h  a i b
more layers of intermediate storing units; and a set of directed links s 1−
28

that connect units in the input or intermediate layers to neuron units Eðt Þ ¼ e t  Ecm ð6Þ
and neuron units to intermediate or output units (see Figure 7).
Several steps must be performed when working with an FN. The first where E(t) is the modulus of elasticity at age t (GPa), Ecm is the modulus
is to define the initial topology of the network based on the problem at of elasticity at 28 days for each formulation (GPa), s is the parameter re-
hand. Next, the architecture must be initialised using functional equa- lated to the cement type (s = 0.2 for cement CEM I 42.5R and CEM II
tions and the equivalence concept, and the uniqueness condition of 42.5R), t is the age of each formulation in days, and a and b are coeffi-
the desired architecture checked. Third, the learning procedure (i.e., cients to be adjusted.
the training algorithm) is realised by  considering
 the combinations of According to the MC90 approach, the stiffness of concrete can be
linear independent functions, ψ ¼ ψs1 ; …; ψsms , for all s to approxi- estimated by the following expression:
mate the neuron functions:
 h  a i b
28
s 1− c
Eðt Þ ¼ e t  α E  Ec0  ½ f cm =f cm0  ð7Þ
X
ms
g s ðxÞ ¼ ðα si  ψsi ðxÞÞ for all s ð3Þ
i¼1 where t, E(t) and s have the same meanings as in the EC2 expression; αE
is a coefficient that depends on the type of aggregate used (a value of
where the coefficients αsi are the parameters of the functional networks. 0.99 is used for clayey soil); Ec0 is determined for each formulation
The most common linearly independent functions are ψ = {1,X, …,Xm}; based on its 28 day modulus of elasticity; fcm0 = 10 MPa; fcm is each
 J. Tinoco et al. / Engineering Geology 169 (2014) 50–60 55

formulation's 28 day strength (MPa); and a, b and c are coefficients to

8
be adjusted. Target
Predictions
3.2. Evaluation

In regression problem the main goal is to induce a model that mini-

6
mizes an error measurement between observed and predicted values
considering N examples. For this purpose three common metrics were
calculated (Tinoco et al., 2011b): mean absolute deviation (MAD), root

E0, GPa)
mean squared error (RMSE) and coefficient of correlation (R2). The

4
first two metrics should present lower values and R2 should be close
to the unit value. The regression error characteristic (REC) curve
which plots the error tolerance on the x-axis versus the percentage of
points predicted within the tolerance on the y-axis (Bi and Bennett,

2
2003) was also constructed with the proposed to compare the perfor-
mance of different models.
The model generalization performance was accessed by R runs
under a leave-one-out approach (Hastie et al., 2009), where successive-
ly one example is used to test the model and the remains are used to fit

0
the model. Under this scheme, all of the data are used for training and
testing. Yet, this method requires approximately N (the number of 0 50 100 150
data samples) times more computation, because N models must be Records
fitted. The final generalization estimate is evaluated by computing the
Fig. 8. Deviation of E0 experimental values from those predicted by the SVM model.
MAD, RMSE and R2 metrics for all N test samples.
In addition to presenting high quality predictions, it is also important
to extract human understandable knowledge from the data-driven Between two consecutive xa,j values, the VEC plot performs a linear in-
model. Since several of the tested DM models are complex (e.g. ANN terpolation. To enhance the visualization analysis, several VEC curves
and SVM), in this work we use a novel visualization approach based can be plotted in the same graph. In such case, the x-axis is scaled
on a sensitivity analysis (SA) method (Cortez and Embrechts, 2012). (e.g. within [0,1]) for all xa values. Similarly, when a pair of inputs
SA is a simple method that is applied after the training phase and mea- (xa1, xa2) is simultaneously varied (F N 2), the VEC surface can be plot-
sures the model responses when a given input is changed, allowing to ted, showing the average responses to changes in the pair.
quantify the relative importance of each attribute, as well as its average
effect on the target variable. 4. Results and discussion
In particular, we applied the global sensitivity analysis (GSA) meth-
od (Cortez and Embrechts, 2011), which is able to detect interactions This section presents, discusses and compares the performance
among input attributes. This is achieved by performing a simultaneous achieved by the DM models on the E0 prediction of JGLF. Updates to re-
variation of F inputs (that can range from 1, one dimensional SA, denot- sults already published in Tinoco et al. (2010, 2011a, 2011c, 2011d) are
ed as 1-D, to I, I-D SA). Each input is varied through its range with L made, particularly in terms of model interpretability. This upgrade also
levels and the remaining inputs are kept fix to a b baseline value. In contemplates a better optimisation of the variables selected and the
this work, we set: L = 12, which allows an interesting detail level model parameters, particularly for the SVM algorithm. The key variables
under a reasonable amount of computational effort; and b is the average
input variable value.
First, the DM model is fitted to the whole dataset. Then, the GSA al-
1.0

gorithm is applied to the fitted DM model, being the respective sensitiv-

ity responses stored. Next, using these responses, two important
visualization techniques can be computed.
0.8

The input importance bar plot shows the relative influence of each
input in the model (from 0% to 100%). The rational of SA is that the
higher the changes produced in the output, the more important is the
0.6

input. To measure this effect, following the suggestion of Cortez and

Accuracy

Embrechts (2011), we adopted the gradient metric:

L
X .
^ ^a; j−1 ðL−1Þ
ga ¼ ya; j −y ð8Þ
0.4

j¼2

^a; j is the sensitivity

where a denotes the input variable under analysis, y
0.2

response for xa,j. Having computed the gradient for all inputs, then the MR
ANN
relative importance (Ra) is calculated using:
SVM
, FN
XI
0.0

Ra ¼ g a g i  100ð% Þ: ð9Þ
i¼1
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5
Absolute deviation
To analyse the average impact of a given input xa in the fitted model,
the variable effect characteristic (VEC) curve can be used, which plots Fig. 9. REC curves (including points and whiskers) of all DM models trained to predict E0 in
the attribute L level values (x-axis) versus the SA responses (y-axis). JGLF.
56 J. Tinoco et al. / Engineering Geology 169 (2014) 50–60

Table 4 Fig. 9 presents the REC curve (mean values and 95% level confidence
Metrics of the DM E0 prediction models used for JGLF. intervals according to a t-student distribution) for all the DM models
Metric MR FN ANN SVM predicting E0 in JGLF, indicating that the best performance is achieved
by the SVM and ANN algorithms. The MR model is unable to accurately
MAD 0.34 ± 0.00 0.22 ± 0.00 0.15 ± 0.00 0.17 ± 0.00
RMSE 0.48 ± 0.00 0.30 ± 0.00 0.21 ± 0.00 0.25 ± 0.01 predict the stiffness of JGLF over time. However, this model is useful for
R2 0.87 ± 0.00 0.95 ± 0.00 0.97 ± 0.00 0.96 ± 0.00 corroborating the fact that the JGLF stiffness and its contributing factors
do not have a linear relationship. Table 4 summarises the average values
of the MAD, RMSE and R2, with the correspondent t-student 95% confi-
for E0 prediction are identified through the application of a novel visual- dence intervals for each trained E0 prediction model.
isation approach based on a SA method, and the effect of these variables In addition to observing the high performance achieved by the DM
is interpreted and discussed. Finally, the performance of the EC2 and models, particularly SVM and ANN, in JGLF stiffness prediction, it is
MC90 models adapted to JGLF is identified and compared with that of also useful to understand what has been learned by each model. We
the DM models, and a novel approach to predicting E0 for a given JGLF apply the GSA methodology to identify the key parameters (input im-
based on the its strength is developed and presented. portance bar plot, 1-D SA) and their average influence on the output re-
An internal 10-fold cross-validation approach (i.e., using only sponse (VEC curves). Fig. 10 shows the relative importance of each
training data) is adopted during the DM algorithms' learning phases to variable according to the ANN, SVM and FN models (i.e., the three
obtain the estimation error. Twenty runs under a leave-one-out ap- most accurate models) when predicting the E0 of JGLF. This figure
proach are applied to assess the trained model's generalisation capacity makes it clear that n/(Civ)d, t and the soil properties (particularly
(i.e., its test error). The GSA is adopted for parameter L with L = 12 %Clay) strongly affect the E0 behaviour of JGLF over time. It is also inter-
levels and 1-D (F = 1) and 2-D (F = 2) variants. esting to note that the relative importance of each variable according to
the FN is not backed by domain knowledge. It is known from studies of
soil–cement mixtures that the behaviour of this type of mixture cannot
4.1. Data mining techniques for JGLF deformability prediction be controlled solely by soil properties, and this observation corroborates
previous evidence (Fayyad et al., 1996) indicating that DM techniques
DM techniques are successfully applied to the estimation of JGLF me- must be validated by human experts to assure their validity.
chanical properties. They can be used to predict uniaxial compressive We adopt the SVM model as the reference model for the remainder
strength with high accuracy (Tinoco et al., 2011b) and can also predict of this section because it has the highest JGLF stiffness prediction perfor-
stiffness, as illustrated by this study. In fact, the SVM algorithm also mance (see Table 4) and is more coherent in terms of its relative input
makes very successful E0 predictions. Among the 20 runs performed, importance (Figure 10).
the SVM hyperparameters described in Section 3.1.1 that best fit the Fig. 11 (VEC curves for E0 prediction according to the SVM model,
E0 data are  = 0.700 ± 0.002 and γ = 0.610 ± 0.139 (mean value with the x-axis scaled between 0 and 1) shows the positive effect of t
and 95% confidence interval). The deviation between the E0 experimen- in E0 prediction over time and that this effect is stronger at early ages,
tal values and those predicted by the SVM model is plotted in Fig. 8, indicating exponential behaviour (Tinoco et al., 2011c). In contrast,
indicating a very accurate prediction. the relationships n/(Civ)d, %Clay and W/C have a negative impact on E0

0 10 20 30 40 50

23.03
n (C i v )d 15.47
SVM
0.18
ANN
13.79
t 11.3 FN
0.41

13.48
%Clay 9.4
1.84

12.63
W/C 9.68
Variable

0.37

10.61
%Sand 10.96
1.41

9.35
%C 12.09
0.67

9.23
%OM 14.98
51.08

7.88
%Silt 16.12
44.03

0 10 20 30 40 50
Importance (%)

Fig. 10. Relative importance bar plot for each variable based on the use of SVM, ANN and FN in E0 prediction.
 J. Tinoco et al. / Engineering Geology 169 (2014) 50–60 57

3.0

2.8 n (C iv )
d

t 2.8
%Clay
2.6

W/C
2.6
2.4

2.4
E0 (GPa)

E0
2.2

2.2

2.0
2.0

1.8
1.8

1.6
n (Civ)d t

0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.4

(scaled)

Fig. 11. VEC curves for the more relevant variables in the E0 prediction of JGLF according to Fig. 13. VEC surface of the 2-D iteration between n/(Civ)d and t in E0 prediction according to
the SVM model (adapted from Tinoco et al. (2011c)). the SVM model.

prediction, meaning that, for example, E0 decreases when the relation- Fig. 13 plots the VEC surface of the n/(Civ)d and t sensitivity pair
ship n/(Civ)d increases. The VEC curves for %Clay and the W/C ratio when predicting the E0 of JGLF. As expected, higher E0 values are
(Figure 11) show a slight increase in E0 when those values increase achieved when t is higher and n/(Civ)d is lower. Furthermore, E0 also
and can be explained by the iteration between variables. For instance, appears to be more sensitive to changes in n/(Civ)d than t.
the high clay content of the soil results in the addition of more cement,
which yields a mixture with greater stiffness.
A 2-D GSA is performed to measure the iteration between input var- 4.2. Use of EC2 and MC90 models for JGLF deformability prediction
iables. Because testing all input pair combinations is computationally
expensive, we opt to analyse the iteration of n/(Civ)d with all remaining The mathematical expressions of the EC2 analytical model and
variables from the E0 prediction. Fig. 12 ranks the influence of the other MC90 approach, currently used to estimate the strength and stiffness
variables when varied in conjunction with n/(Civ)d, showing that t is the of concrete over time, are adapted for use with JGLF. The former exhibits
most important parameter. performance equivalent to DM models, particularly SVM and ANN, as
shown in Table 5, which summarises the mean values and 95% level
confidence intervals according to a t-student distribution. Fig. 14 indi-
0 5 10 15 20
cates an excellent relationship between the experimental E0 values
and those predicted by the EC2 model adapted for use with JGLF. The
t 21.22 optimised values of coefficients a and b in Eq. (6) are a = 0.0011 and
b = 959.56.
However, in spite of the EC2 expression's ability to estimate JGLF
%Clay 17.94 stiffness with high accuracy, it also has an important limitation. The
EC2 model is obviously strongly affected by the Ecm value, i.e., stiffness
of each formulation at 28 day time of cure. Therefore, its application
%Sand 15.86
must be postponed for 28 days to perform stiffness tests on each formu-
lation and quality control during construction. However, ongoing re-
search to predict stiffness based on earlier measurements (Azenha
W/C 14.48
et al., 2011) will most likely eliminate this problem in the future.
The results achieved from adapting and modifying the MC90 expres-
%C 10.6 sion to the E0 prediction of JGLF (Tinoco et al., 2010) are very poor
(Table 5), meaning that this approach is incapable of accurately quanti-
fying JGLF stiffness over time despite the fact that its mathematical ex-
%Silt 10.45 pression considers the 28 day strength (fcm parameter) of each

%OM 9.45 Table 5

MAD, RMSE and R2 metrics for the E0 prediction of JGLF according to the EC2 and MC90
analytical models adapted for use with JG material.
0 5 10 15 20 Metric SVM MC90adapted EC2adapted
Importance (%)
MAD 0.17 ± 0.00 0.84 ± 0.00 0.16 ± 0.00
RMSE 0.25 ± 0.01 1.11 ± 0.00 0.25 ± 0.00
Fig. 12. 2-D iteration of the n/(Civ)d variable in the E0 prediction according to the SVM
R2 0.95 ± 0.00 0.48 ± 0.00 0.96 ± 0.00
model.
58 J. Tinoco et al. / Engineering Geology 169 (2014) 50–60

8 Table 6
Summary of both input and output variable statistics in the E0 dataset.

Parameter Minimum Maximum Mean Standard deviation

s⋅(1−(28 t)0.0011) 959.56
y = (e ) ⋅ Ecm %Clay 22.50 45.00 32.73 11.75
t (days) 28.00 56.00 40.73 14.62
6
Predicted values (E0, GPa)

%C 35.85 36.83 36.30 0.51

UCS (MPa) 1.52 7.27 4.72 2.43
E0 (GPa) 2.32 7.89 5.00 1.99

and during the learning phase (i.e., using only training data) to optimise
4

the available data. Table 6 summarises the main statistics of the data-
base's input and target variables used in this experiment.
The results show high performance by the models despite the num-
ber of records used to train and test the models, particularly by the
SVM model. Fig. 15 depicts the relationship between the E0 experimental
2

values and those predicted by the SVM model, showing a small deviation
between them that is corroborated by a R2 value very close to the unit.
These results indicate once again the advanced learning capabilities of
such an algorithm, especially in the exploration of JGLF data. Hence,
and according to previous findings, only those results related to the
0

0 2 4 6 8 SVM model are discussed from this point forward. Among the 20 runs
Experimental values (E0, GPa) performed, the SVM hyperparameters (described in Section 3.1.1) that
best fit the data are  = 0.07 ± 0.01 and γ = 0.05 ± 0.00 (mean values
Fig. 14. Scatter plot of the E0 predicted for JGLF using the EC2 analytical expression adapted
and 95% confidence intervals).
for use with JG material.
The relative influence of each input variable on the SVM model is
measured by performing the GSA described in Section 3.2. Fig. 16
formulation. However, we believe that this approach has value in prac- shows, as expected, that the UCS is strongly correlated with the E0 of a
tical application and develop it in the following section. given sample and that t, %C, and %Clay also play important roles in the
relationship between these two mechanical properties.
4.3. JGLF deformability prediction normalised to experimental results Moreover, the GSA also verifies that these four variables have an al-
most linear effect on E0, as shown in the VEC curves for UCS and t
The uniaxial compressive test is a standard, simple and relatively in- depicted in Fig. 17. This linear behaviour, contrary to that observed in
expensive way to assess JG improvement quality control. However, the Fig. 11, indicates that all non-linear components in E0 prediction are in-
deformability properties of the soilcrete material are sometimes also im- corporated through the UCS variable, which is expected.
portant for the evaluation of a structure's serviceability (Gomes Correia, The proposed approach is compared with the EC2 model adapted for
2004). Keeping in mind that deformability tests are more expensive and JGLF presented in Section 4.2 for the purposes of baseline comparison
take more time, it would be useful to predict JGLF stiffness based on an and practical application. Fig. 15 shows the deviation between the
unconfined compression test in practice. values predicted by these two approaches and their metric values. A
Thus, a novel approach using DM techniques is presented with the
goal of predicting JGLF deformability based on the uniaxial compressive
strength (UCS) of the sample and considering elementary variables re-
8

lated to the mix properties. Although this approach presents a less ap- SVM model
plicability, since UCS may not always be available, it can give us some EC2 model
information about the advantage of considering UCS as an input variable
7

and thus balance project costs and model accuracy.

The proposed model is capable of predicting the E0 of JGLF based on
Predicted values (E0, GPa)

the %Clay, %C and the t of the mixture as well as its UCS at the same age.
The choice of these variables is supported on the one hand by the empir-
6

ical knowledge related to soil-cement mixtures, particularly the variable

t, and on the other hand by the comparison of the key variables affecting
JGLF strength (Tinoco et al., 2012) and stiffness studies. The comparison
5

indicates that %Clay plays an important role in JGLF stiffness behaviour

and is almost insignificant in UCS prediction, whereas %C is more impor-
tant to JGLF strength prediction than deformability. This evidences that
4

these two variables are key elements to determining the stiffness of a

given JGLF based on its unconfined strength.
The proposed approach is developed based on a rather small data- MR ANN SVM EC2
3

base, containing only 11 samples, extracted from the main database MAD 0.41±0.00 0.43±0.02 0.40±0.00 0.27±0.00
used for the experiments presented in Sections 4.1 and 4.2. However, RMSE 0.49±0.00 0.63±0.05 0.49±0.00 0.44±0.00
it should be stressed that this type of experimental data is very scarce R
2
0.94±0.00 0.89±0.02 0.94±0.00 0.95±0.00
since it implies in jet grouting projects important costs. The database di-
3 4 5 6 7 8
mension is an important limitation in such circumstances because DM
techniques are particularly designed to work with high amounts of
Experimental values (E0, GPa)
data. However, the practical relevance of such an approach justifies its Fig. 15. Relationship between the E0 experimental values and those predicted by the SVM
use, even under such conditions. The leave-one-out procedure (Hastie and EC2 adapted models. The MAD, RMSE and R2 of the MR, ANN, SVM and EC2 models are
et al., 2009) is applied to the model generalisation capacity assessment also shown.
 J. Tinoco et al. / Engineering Geology 169 (2014) 50–60 59

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 5. Conclusions and future development

This paper illustrates the ability of data mining (DM) techniques to

UC S 29.27 analyse and extract useful information from the complex data of geotech-
nical projects. In particular, a support vector machine (SVM) algorithm is
capable of learning the complex relationships between Young's modulus
(E0) of jet grouting laboratory formulations (JGLF) and its contributing
factors. Furthermore, the relationships between the mix porosity and
t 24.04
the volumetric content of cement (n/(Civ)d), age of the mixture (t) and
the soil properties (particularly its clay content, %Clay) are identified as
key variables in the E0 prediction of JGLF through the application of a
novel visualisation approach based on the sensitivity analysis method. A
%C 23.35 strong interaction is also observed between n/(Civ)d and t, and E0 is more
sensitive to changes in n/(Civ)d than in t, mainly for t values greater than
25 days. This study also shows that the analytical model proposed by the
Eurocode 2 to estimate the stiffness of concrete can be successfully
adapted to predict the E0 of JGLF over time. However, the application of
%Clay 23.35
such a model is possible only if the 28 day deformability modulus of
each formulation is available, which is a main constraint on practical
quality control due to the complexity of the test method and the time re-
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 quired to accomplish it. Contrary to the DM models, the adapted
Importance (%) Eurocode 2 model is unable to account for the effects of all the variables
that affect E0 behaviour in JGLF, which represent a major advantage of
Fig. 16. Relative influence of each input variable according to the SVM model during E0
the soft computing systems when compared with conventional statistical
prediction.
approaches. However, it is still possible to correlate the strength and stiff-
ness of a given JGLF with reliability when considering only its t, %C and
simple comparison of the results reveals that the EC2 model shows %Clay. This approach has practical appeal because it allows for the predic-
slightly better performance than the proposed approach (SVM model). tion of a JGLF's E0 based on the standard and less expensive test used to
However, it should be stressed that the EC2 adapted model is strongly quantify unconfined compressive strength.
dependent on the 28 day deformability modulus of each formulation, The performance of soft computing systems showed to be a good
which requires more complex and expensive laboratory testing than tool to improve technical and economic efficiency of engineering pro-
that employed to determine the unconfined compressive strength. jects. Therefore, and considering the high learning capabilities of DM
Moreover, five of the eleven samples were tested at 28 days, meaning tools to explore complex data, particularly SVM algorithms, the authors
that the EC2 model error is equal to zero for these records. The proposed intend to apply the same tools to future work by following a similar ap-
approach (the SVM model) displays better accuracy for the remaining proach to predict the final diameter of real JG columns and their field
samples (Figure 15), which were tested at 56 days. Moreover, it should mechanical properties over time. The authors also intend to improve
be highlighted that the proposed approach based on the SVM model can the databases used in the current study, particularly those used for the
be further updated as new data become available, which will certainly experiments presented in Section 4.3, and to update the models.
improve the model's accuracy.
Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank to “Fundação para a Ciência e a

Tecnologia” (FCT) for the financial support under the strategic project
5.75

UCS PEst-OE/ECI/UI4047/2011 and the doctoral Grant SFRH/BD/45781/

t 2008. Also, the authors would like to thank the interest and financial
support by Tecnasol-FGE as well as to Tiago Valente for the dataset
5.5

gathered from the laboratory formulations.

5.25

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