TAGUCHI OPTIMIZATION OF DISPLACEMENTS DURING THE DESIGN PHASE OF A CONSTRUCTION PROJECT

The prediction of quality characteristics during the design phase of a construction project was fragmented, because no particular method exists. One of the most important key responses is the total displacements (horizontal and vertical). A brainstorming session produces the quality parameters i.e. the control factors which here are identified as: the steel joint, the pile's length, the excavation depth and angle, the distance between the piles, the anchor stretch and length to name just some of the most engaging in the design. The purpose of this study is to optimise these parameters to minimize the total displacements following a methodology based on Taguchi method. For this reason, a 2-level, L₈ orthogonal array has been employed to organize the experimentation. Data is obtained from a real-life excavation project designed on the Plaxis v.8 CAE package. Taguchi analysis is performed in the statistical package Minitab.