An evolutionary hybrid optimization of MARS model in predicting settlement of shallow foundations on sandy soils

This study is attempted to propose a new hybrid artificial intelligence model called integrative genetic algorithm with multivariate adaptive regression splines (GA-MARS) for settlement prediction of shallow foundations on sandy soils. In this hybrid model, the evolution algorithm – Genetic Algorithm (GA) was used to search and optimize the hyperparameters of multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS). For this purpose, a total of 180 experimental data were collected and analyzed from available researches with five-input variables including the bread of foundation (B), length to width (L/B), embedment ratio (Df/B), foundation net applied pressure (qnet), and average SPT blow count (NSPT). In further analysis, a new explicit formulation was derived from MARS and its accuracy was compared with four available formulae. The attained results indicated that the proposed GA-MARS model exhibited a more robust and better performance than the available methods.