The past decade has witnessed the rapid development and adoption of machine and deep learning (ML & DL) methodologies in agricultural systems, showcased by great successes in applications such as ...smart crop management, smart plant breeding, smart livestock farming, precision aquaculture farming, and agricultural robotics. However, these conventional ML/DL models have certain limitations: they heavily rely on large, costly-to-acquire labeled datasets for training, require specialized expertise for development and maintenance, and are mostly tailored for specific tasks, thus lacking generalizability. Recently, large pre-trained models, also known as foundation models (FMs), have demonstrated remarkable successes in language, vision, and decision-making tasks across various domains. These models are trained on a vast amount of data from multiple domains and modalities. Once trained, they can accomplish versatile tasks with just minor fine-tuning and minimal task-specific labeled data. Despite their proven effectiveness and huge potential, there has been little exploration of applying FMs to agriculture artificial intelligence (AI). Therefore, this study aims to explore the potential of FMs in the field of smart agriculture. In particular, conceptual tools and technical background are presented to facilitate the understanding of the problem space and uncover new research directions in this field. To this end, recent FMs in the general computer science (CS) domain are reviewed, and the models are categorized into four categories: language FMs, vision FMs, multimodal FMs, and reinforcement learning FMs. Subsequently, the process of developing agriculture FMs (AFMs) is outlined and their potential applications in smart agriculture are discussed. In addition, the unique challenges and risks associated with developing AFMs are discussed, including model training, validation, and deployment. Through this study, the advancement of AI in agriculture is explored by introducing AFMs as a promising paradigm that can significantly mitigate the reliance on extensive labeled datasets and enhance the efficiency, effectiveness, and generalization of agricultural AI systems. To facilitate further research, a well-classified and actively updated list of papers on AFMs is organized and accessible at https://github.com/JiajiaLi04/Agriculture-Foundation-Models.
•Basics of large language and foundation models.•Review of potential applications of large language and foundation models in agriculture.•Outline challenges and opportunities.
Liquefaction-induced settlement and bearing capacity failure have been reported as leading causes of damages in shallow foundations during earthquakes. Previous studies of this problem have mainly ...focused on the performance of isolated shallow foundations. In urban areas, however, foundations are generally located in close proximity. In this study, three series of centrifuge tests were conducted to investigate the effect of foundation-soil-foundation interaction (FSFI) on the seismic and post-seismic settlement of shallow foundations on saturated sand. Two rigid foundations with different surcharge loads (as heavy and light foundations) were placed with different spacing. Multiple shaking events were applied to achieve different extents of soil liquefaction. The results indicate that significant part of foundation settlement occurred before soil reconsolidation. Furthermore, the time period after shaking, wherein excess pore water pressure sustains, plays an important role in the total settlement of foundations. The acceleration responses experienced by the foundations were significantly larger than those observed in the free-field. The heavy foundation fluctuated more strongly than the light one. Moreover, adjacency considerably affected the seismic response of foundations whereas stronger acceleration response on the ground level was observed for the closer cases. The Clear asymmetric settlement was observed for the adjacent foundations. It is demonstrated that settlement of foundations not only is dependent on foundations' proximity but also is a function of shaking intensity. Influence of foundations' spacing on the generation-dissipation mechanism of excess pore water pressure (EPWP) and liquefaction extent was described by the time-dependent contours plotted by interpolation of the recorded data.
•Foundation-soil-foundation interaction on liquefiable sand is studied.•Settlement mechanisms of foundations are divided into three distinct phases.•Propagation of liquefaction extent after shaking affects foundation settlement.•Closely adjacent foundations behave like a mono-foundation.•Foundations fluctuate more strongly when located closer to each other.
Collapsible soils have been regarded to be a significant engineering concern for foundation constructions in northwest China. Given that the collapsible soils, also known as loess, cover most of ...northwest China, all buildings, structures, and utility pipelines have to deal with the collapse of loess. Despite the many empirically based methods available for evaluation of the collapse of loess, methods to assess the collapse of loess surrounded by piles are, however, rarely seen. This study proposes a simple method for evaluation of the collapse of loess surrounded by piles by taking into account both the collapsible deformation characteristics and friction at the loess–pile interface. The results of an application of the proposed method to three more loess–pile foundation worksites are presented and indicate that the proposed method can predict the settlement of loess–pile foundation satisfactorily.
If a rigid wheel or roller acts on an infinitely-long beam or a narrow (1-D) plate that is attached to a deformable foundation, point contact or a region of circular contact may occur. The following ...problems are analyzed: (1) an Euler-Bernoulli beam or an elastica attached to a Winkler foundation; (2) an Euler-Bernoulli beam or an elastica attached to a Pasternak foundation; (3) an Euler-Bernoulli beam attached to a foundation with two different stiffnesses; (4) point contact of a moving wheel with constant speed on an Euler-Bernoulli beam or an elastica attached to a Winkler or Pasternak foundation; (5) point contact of a 1-D plate on an elastomeric foundation; and (6) point contact of a 1-D plate attached to a combined foundation (including Winkler and elastomeric actions). The Euler-Bernoulli beam model tends to predict larger maximum deflections than the elastica model. For small speeds, the maximum deflection increases as the speed increases.
The installation phase is a critical stage during the lifecycle of an offshore wind turbine. This paper presents a state-of-the-art review of the technical aspects of offshore wind turbine ...installation. An overview is first presented introducing the classification of offshore wind turbines, installation vessels, rules and regulations, and numerical modelling tools. Then, various installation methods and concepts for bottom-fixed and floating wind turbines are critically discussed, following the order of wind turbine foundations and components. Applications and challenges of the methods are identified. Finally, future developments in four technical areas are envisioned. This review aims to guide research and development activities on offshore wind turbine installation.
•Various installation methods and concepts for bottom-fixed and floating offshore wind turbines are presented.•Challenges and opportunities for different foundation and component installation methods are identified.•Research works on installation methods are critically reviewed.•Future developments in four technical areas are envisioned.
An unconnected pile foundation allows separation between the lower pile and the pile cap, and it has been proposed as an effective foundation type for reducing the seismic load during strong ...earthquakes. However, previous quantitative evaluations of unconnected piles with various foundation types and earthquake intensities are inadequate. In this study, the influence of base shaking level and the material of the interposed layer between pile and pile cap on the seismic behaviour of unconnected piles were evaluated using a centrifuge model test to reproduce the field stress conditions. A dynamic centrifuge model test was completed on an experimental model consisting of dry sandy soil, a foundation and a single degree-of-freedom structure. The acceleration of the structure and the settlement of the foundation system were measured during base shaking. For the unconnected pile system, the structural seismic load reduction effect due to rocking behaviour was confirmed, and the unconnected pile foundation with the interposed layer with large stiffness had less vertical settlement than the conventional shallow foundation. Finally, the rotational stiffness and damping ratio for the foundation system used in the centrifuge model tests were derived and discussed.
Seismic settlement of shallow foundations constructed in seismic active areas should be considered for a reasonable estimation of the total settlement. However, the trend of the seismic settlement of ...shallow foundation constructed on a sandy soil is not clearly understood and it is estimated by designer using simple analytical methods. These methods do not consider the effect of the soil–structure interaction. This research, therefore, reports the results of 105 robust finite element models developed to investigate the seismic settlement of a shallow foundation constructed on a dry sand. The influence of the load applied on the foundation, relative density of sand, foundation embedment, peak ground acceleration of the earthquake shake, thickness of the sandy soil, and the dominant frequency of the earthquake shake have been examined to provide a comprehensive understanding of the parameters influencing the seismic settlement. The results of the analyses showed that increasing the load applied on the foundation or the peak ground acceleration remarkably increases the seismic settlement, while increasing the embedment depth remarkably reduces the seismic settlement. In addition, the relationship between the thickness of the sandy layer and the seismic settlement is found to be very complex and noticeably influenced by the relative density of the sand. More importantly, it was found that the seismic settlement dramatically increases when the dominant frequency of the earthquake approaches the natural frequency of the system. Thus, all these parameters are important and should be considered by designers for a reasonable estimation of the seismic settlement. The conclusions drawn from this paper will aid the development of a good analytical method in future, and the results reported in this paper also provide useful and novel database to designers and practitioners.
Dynamic characteristics of piled raft foundation system plays an important role in the safety of high-rise buildings subjected to seismic loadings though the analytical study considering the effect ...of both foundation and superstructure is very few in literature. The present study first proposes an exact analytical solution for piled raft foundation subjected to harmonic excitation and resting on an elastic Winkler foundation to obtain its natural radial frequency. After successful validation through available centrifuge test results, a series of parametric study has been carried out investigating the influence of various geometrical and geotechnical parameters of the foundation and the soils respectively. It is observed that the pile length and the pile diameter has significant effect on the natural radial frequency of the foundation system whereas soil density and spacing between piles have minimal effect. The importance of stiffness of the superstructure is also considered in the proposed methodology. It is found that the natural radial frequency of piled raft foundation including superstructure stiffness decreases by 12% to 28% when compared with the computation of the natural radial frequency excluding effect of superstructure stiffness. Hence, this study provides a new analytical methodology to obtain the dynamics characteristics of piled raft foundation considering the superstructure effect which can be used for the design.
•An exact new analytical solution for dynamic characteristics of piled raft is proposed.•Natural frequency of piled raft significantly altered with pile length and diameter but not with spacing.•Effect of superstructure stiffness is also considered on piled raft.•Natural frequency of piled raft decreases by about 12–28% by considering superstructure.•Influence of number of stories on natural frequency of piled raft is studied.
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