abstract = "Modelling behaviour of materials involves
approximating the actual behaviour with that of an
idealised material that deforms in accordance with some
constitutive relationships. Several constitutive models
have been developed for various materials many of which
involve determination of material parameters with no
physical meaning. ANN is a computer-based modelling
technique for computation and knowledge representation
inspired by the neural architecture and operation of
the human brain. It has been shown by various
researchers that ANNs offer outstanding advantages in
constitutive modelling of material; however, these
networks have some shortcoming. In this thesis, the
Evolutionary Polynomial Regression (EPR) was introduced
as an alternative approach to constitutive modelling of
the complex behaviour of saturated and unsaturated
soils and also modelling of a number of other civil and
geotechnical engineering materials and systems. EPR
overcomes the shortcomings of ANN by providing a
structured and transparent model representing the
behaviour of the system. In this research EPR is
applied to modelling of stress-strain and volume change
behaviour of unsaturated soils, modelling of SWCC in
unsaturated soils, hydro-thermo-mechanical modelling of
unsaturated soils, identification of coupling
parameters between shear strength behaviour and
chemical's effects in compacted soils, modelling of
permeability and compaction characteristics of soils,
prediction of the stability status of soil and rock
slopes and modelling the mechanical behaviour of rubber
concrete. Comparisons between EPR-based material model
predictions, the experimental data and the predictions
from other data mining and regression modelling
techniques and also the results of the parametric
studies revealed the exceptional capabilities of the
proposed methodology in modelling the very complicated
behaviour of geotechnical and civil engineering
materials.",