Application of genetic algorithms for the estimation of hydraulic conductivity

In the study described here model calibration was performed employing the inverse analysis using genetic algorithms (GA). The objective of analysis is to determine value of the coefficient of hydraulic conductivity, k. The commonly used method for the determination of coefficient of hydraulic conductivity based on Terzaghi consolidation leads to an underestimation of the value of k as the Terzaghi model does not take into account the deformation of soil skeleton. Here, an alternative methodology based on genetic algorithms is presented for the determination of the basic parameters of Biot consolidation model. It has been demonstrated that genetic algorithms are a highly effective tool enabling automatic calibration based on simple rules. The values of the coefficient of hydraulic conductivity obtained with GA are of at least one order smaller than values obtained with the Terzaghi model.