Direct back analysis by the meshless local Petrov-Galerkin method and Bayesian statistics

This study presents a preliminary development of a direct back analysis procedure by the meshless local Petrov-Galerkin (MLPG) method and Bavesian statistics and the application of resulting procedure to characterize soil properties using laboratory results. As compared to direct back analyses that are based on the finite element method (FEM), it is intended to show that MLPG-based direct back analyses may be more suitable for some kinds of characterization problems: for example. involving a complex subsurface stratification or the characterization of soil properties of just an inclusion of a soil profile. The existing MLPG method is first slightly modified to analyse time-dependent problems. Using the resulting method, quantities to be characterized are evaluated so that they give numerical results as close to treasured data its possible. The Akaike information criterion is introduced for simplifying the evaluation. A one-dimensional finite strain consolidation problem is introduced to do an error analysis for prediction by the proposed MLPG method. Another example illustrates experiences of performing an MLPG-based direct back analysis. Comparison of MLPG-based and FEM-based direct back analyses is taken. Copyright (C) 2006 John Wiley & Sons. Ltd.