[Formulae and special characters can not be reproduced here. Please see the pdf version of the Abstract for an accurate reproduction.] The thesis provides a comprehensive study on the behaviour of sand with a small amount of fines [i.e.1/3 plastic fines and 2/3 non-plastic fines]. The work is carried out experimentally under axi-symmetric conditions using the triaxial apparatus. Conventional drained triaxial tests are conducted on isotropic consolidated specimens and all the tests indicate that sand with fines does not manifest any unusual behaviour under drained conditions. However in undrained shearing the so-called ???reverse behaviour??? is noted. The study demonstrates that the reverse behaviour conforms to the critical state framework because significant changes in the position and geometry of the critical state [CS] and isotropic consolidation [IL] lines are caused by the presence of fines. These changes cannot be adequately modelled by the intergranular void ratio as proposed by Thevanayagam and Mohan (2000). This study also demonstrates that the original state parameter [special character] as proposed by Been and Jefferies (1985) is not an adequate parameter to predict the undrained behaviour trend. A new parameter termed ???modified state parameter??? [special character] is proposed to account for the combined effects of density and confining pressure. The suitability of the modified state parameter to characterise the response of parent sand and sand with fines is assessed for a range of void ratios and confining pressures. The effect of drained stress history is an important factor affecting the subsequent undrained response. Drained pre-shearing to failure is found to improve considerably the subsequent undrained response to the extent that liquefaction may not occur. Different drained pre-shearing histories have different effects on the undrained response. However in these tests [special character] has limitations in quantifying the subsequent undrained stress-strain response. Hence, a new framework of ???yielding parameter??? [special character] extends the capability of [special character] and additional data is presented to demonstrate the suitability of this concept. The implementation of [special character] depends on whether the previous stress state reached during the stress history is below or at failure. The effects of drained pre-shearing on the position and movement of failure surface are investigated. It is found that drained pre-shearing to failure at larger confining pressures has the effect of shifting upwards part of the drained failure surface. The shift at larger stress ratios [special character] may be described in terms of dilatancy and modified state parameter at failure. The so-called strain path tests are conducted to study the influence of strain increment ratio on the deformation behaviour of sand with fines. It is found that the value of [special character] has significant effects on the stress-strain behaviour. Along negative [special character] paths the soil strain softens in the form of decreasing the shear resistance before reaching the failure state. In contrast, along positive [special character] paths the soil strain hardens to an asymptotic stress ratio. The asymptotic stress ratio decreases with increasing [special character] along a linear relationship. The framework of [special character] cannot quantify the stress-strain response along positive and negative strain paths. Consequently an ???instability parameter??? [special character] is proposed to extend the capabilities of [special character] and the reliability of this parameter is further assessed. The behaviour along a range of positive and negative [special character] paths is investigated on pre-sheared specimens. In negative [special character] the effective stress paths reach a surface located higher than the monotonic failure surface on which they trace downward towards the origin of stress space. The results indicate this surface may be the same as the drained failure envelope which has been shifted as a result of drained pre-shearing. In positive [special character] paths a large improvement is noted in both the strength and stiffness of the soil. Note The parameters [special character] and [special character] are all generalisations of [special character] so that the behaviour under complex conditions can be characterised.

[Formulae and special characters can not be reproduced here. Please see the pdf version of the Abstract for an accurate reproduction.] The thesis provides a comprehensive study on the behaviour of sand with a small amount of fines [i.e.1/3 plastic fines and 2/3 non-plastic fines]. The work is carried out experimentally under axi-symmetric conditions using the triaxial apparatus. Conventional drained triaxial tests are conducted on isotropic consolidated specimens and all the tests indicate that sand with fines does not manifest any unusual behaviour under drained conditions. However in undrained shearing the so-called ???reverse behaviour??? is noted. The study demonstrates that the reverse behaviour conforms to the critical state framework because significant changes in the position and geometry of the critical state [CS] and isotropic consolidation [IL] lines are caused by the presence of fines. These changes cannot be adequately modelled by the intergranular void ratio as proposed by Thevanayagam and Mohan (2000). This study also demonstrates that the original state parameter [special character] as proposed by Been and Jefferies (1985) is not an adequate parameter to predict the undrained behaviour trend. A new parameter termed ???modified state parameter??? [special character] is proposed to account for the combined effects of density and confining pressure. The suitability of the modified state parameter to characterise the response of parent sand and sand with fines is assessed for a range of void ratios and confining pressures. The effect of drained stress history is an important factor affecting the subsequent undrained response. Drained pre-shearing to failure is found to improve considerably the subsequent undrained response to the extent that liquefaction may not occur. Different drained pre-shearing histories have different effects on the undrained response. However in these tests [special character] has limitations in quantifying the subsequent undrained stress-strain response. Hence, a new framework of ???yielding parameter??? [special character] extends the capability of [special character] and additional data is presented to demonstrate the suitability of this concept. The implementation of [special character] depends on whether the previous stress state reached during the stress history is below or at failure. The effects of drained pre-shearing on the position and movement of failure surface are investigated. It is found that drained pre-shearing to failure at larger confining pressures has the effect of shifting upwards part of the drained failure surface. The shift at larger stress ratios [special character] may be described in terms of dilatancy and modified state parameter at failure. The so-called strain path tests are conducted to study the influence of strain increment ratio on the deformation behaviour of sand with fines. It is found that the value of [special character] has significant effects on the stress-strain behaviour. Along negative [special character] paths the soil strain softens in the form of decreasing the shear resistance before reaching the failure state. In contrast, along positive [special character] paths the soil strain hardens to an asymptotic stress ratio. The asymptotic stress ratio decreases with increasing [special character] along a linear relationship. The framework of [special character] cannot quantify the stress-strain response along positive and negative strain paths. Consequently an ???instability parameter??? [special character] is proposed to extend the capabilities of [special character] and the reliability of this parameter is further assessed. The behaviour along a range of positive and negative [special character] paths is investigated on pre-sheared specimens. In negative [special character] the effective stress paths reach a surface located higher than the monotonic failure surface on which they trace downward towards the origin of stress space. The results indicate this surface may be the same as the drained failure envelope which has been shifted as a result of drained pre-shearing. In positive [special character] paths a large improvement is noted in both the strength and stiffness of the soil. Note The parameters [special character] and [special character] are all generalisations of [special character] so that the behaviour under complex conditions can be characterised.

Orientadores: Eliane Martins, Fabiano Luis de Sousa / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-08T18:05:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Abreu_BrunoTeixeirade_M.pdf: 1214826 bytes, checksum: 85afe48e3c8196abe877dc2ea2efa102 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006 / Resumo: O teste é uma atividade importante do processo de desenvolvimento de software, e automatizar a geração de dados de teste contribui para a redução dos esforços de tempo e recursos. Recentemente foi mostrado que os algoritmos evolutivos, tal como os Algoritmos Genéticos (AGs), são ferramentas valiosas para a geração de dados. Este trabalho avalia pela primeira vez o desempenho de um algoritmo evolutivo proposto recentemente, a Otimização Extrema Generalizada (em inglês, Generalized Extremal Optimization, GEO), na geração de dados de teste para cobrir um subconjunto de caminhos de um programa, com ou sem loops. Sete programas muito conhecidos e utilizados como benchmarks por outros autores foram escolhidos como estudos de caso, e o desempenho do GEO foi comparado com o de um AG e o Random-Test (RT). Uma aplicação real do Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE) também foi testada para validar a pesquisa, e as comparações de desempenho incluíram uma variação do AG utilizado nos benchmarks. Para os benchmarks e a aplicação real, o uso do GEO exigiu muito menos esforço computacional para gerar os dados do que os AGs, e a cobertura média de caminhos obtida por ele foi muito semelhante à dos AGs. Além disso, o GEO também exigiu muito menos esforço computacional no ajuste interno de parâmetros do que os AGs. Estes resultados indicam que o GEO é uma opção muito atraente a ser utilizada na geração de dados de teste / Abstract: Software testing is an important activity of the software development process and automating test data generation contributes to reduce cost and time efforts. It has recently been shown that evolutionary algorithms, such as the Genetic Algorithms (GAs), are valuable tools for test data generation. This work assesses for the first time the performance of a recently proposed evolutionary algorithm, the Generalized Extremal Optimization (GEO), on generating test data to cover a subset of paths of a program, with or without loops. Seven well known benchmark programs were used as study cases, and the performance of GEO was compared to the one of a GA and Random-Test (RT). A real application from Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE) was also tested in order to validate the research, and the performance comparisons included one variation of the GA used in the benchmarks. For the benchmark programs and the real application, using GEO required much less computational effort to generate test data than using the GAs, and GEO¿s average coverage was very similar to GA¿s. Besides this, it also required much less computational effort on internal parameter setting than the GAs. These results indicate that GEO is a very attractive option to be used for test data generation / Mestrado / Mestre em Ciência da Computação