The knowledge and understanding of geological structures, materials and processes that characterizes the area in which any geotechnical project will be executed is essential in order to predict the ground behavior along the project execution and propose practical solutions to ground related problems as well. A powerful tool that allows the engineer to visualize the spatial organization of the subsurface geological structures is the 3D ground model.
3D ground models are usually built from 2D cross-sections which in turn are built from 1D ground material distribution in depth obtained from borehole data located in the project execution area. Although these models are crucial for the correct understanding of the ground behavior in any geotechnical activity, nowadays, there is still no tool capable of proposing a 2D/3D ground model having paper borehole reports as raw data. Therefore, in order to fill that gap, SAALG Geomechanics proposes an innovative workflow for the ground model generation within the DAARWIN web platform.
This new functionality involves several steps detailed below:
Management of borehole data obtained from PDF reports. A method based on Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is used to process and store borehole information in such a way that it later allows correct web display.
The construction site is represented on an interactive map where the available boreholes are shown. The user can select the boreholes from which the ground model will be built.
The user interpretation of the borehole logs is required in order to assign the geological layers that make up the borehole record into geological units.
From those geological units, a geotechnical characterization is also needed. The available data from in-situ and laboratory tests collected in the borehole reports is used in this step of the ground model workflow.
Finally, the user can select a set of boreholes on the interactive web map and, taking all of the above into consideration, a 2D cross section is proposed.
The target of the ground model functionality is to be able to generate 2D/3D geological models that can be exported to the commercial Finite Element software PLAXIS and use them to perform geotechnical studies such as Sensitivity analysis and Back-Analysis also implemented in DAARWIN.
Proposing this ground model data workflow integrated in DAARWIN web platform, SAALG Geomechanics intends to provide a useful tool that allows any geotechnical engineer to visualize the underground geological structure of the area where the geotechnical project is located and to assess ground behavior during project execution.
geotechnical, software engineer, geotechnical engineering software, construction AI, civil engineering software
