{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,6]],"date-time":"2026-06-06T15:37:21Z","timestamp":1780760241844,"version":"3.54.1"},"reference-count":40,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"11","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,17]],"date-time":"2025-11-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1763337600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Fujian Province\u2019s 2024 Education and Research Project for Middle-aged and Young Teachers","award":["JAT241001"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["JAT241001"]}]},{"name":"Open Fund Project of the Transportation Infrastructure Intelligent Management and Maintenance Engineering Technology Center of Xiamen City","award":["TCIMI201803"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["TCIMI201803"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Symmetry"],"abstract":"<jats:p>This study focuses on the East Channel Project (Xiang\u2019an South Road\u2014Airport Expressway Section). The project is in the South Port Harbor Bay area. The area has highly complex and asymmetrical geology. Construction faces multiple challenges: tight schedule, overlapping pipeline operations, and large-scale foundation treatment needs. To tackle these, the project uses the plastic drainage board surcharge preloading method for ground improvement. This technique needs continuous settlement deformation monitoring. The monitoring aims to spot potential asymmetric trends and fix the best unloading time. Traditional settlement prediction methods have limits. So, this study develops an intelligent prediction model (SSA-BP). It combines the Sparrow Search Algorithm (SSA) with the BP neural network. The model uses SSA\u2019s strong global search ability to optimize the BP network\u2019s initial weights and thresholds. This effectively avoids local minima and improves prediction stability. Comparative experiments with other optimization algorithms (Particle Swarm Optimization PSO, Grey Wolf Optimizer GWO, and Differential Evolution DE) show that the SSA-BP model has better convergence accuracy and robustness. Field monitoring data validation indicates the model\u2019s prediction error is stably between \u22123.4% and 3.2%. It surpasses traditional methods like the three-point and hyperbolic methods. The study\u2019s key innovation is introducing an asymmetry-aware view. It analyzes settlement\u2019s morphological evolution and predictability under surcharge preloading. The SSA-BP model can identify both symmetric and asymmetric deformation patterns well. It offers a new computational tool to understand asymmetry breaking in geotechnical systems. Moreover, the model can accurately predict settlement behavior in real time. This provides dynamic construction decision-making guidance and effective cost control. This research shows that intelligent algorithms have great potential. They can reveal complex geotechnical systems\u2019 inherent laws and promote foundation engineering\u2019s intelligentization.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/sym17111989","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,17]],"date-time":"2025-11-17T14:04:07Z","timestamp":1763388247000},"page":"1989","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Settlement Prediction of Preloading Method Based on SSA-BP Neural Network with Consideration of Asymmetric Settlement Behavior"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"17","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5054-5429","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Xinye","family":"Wu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Fujian Key Laboratory of Digital Simulations for Coastal Civil Engineering, School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zhiwei","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Fujian Key Laboratory of Digital Simulations for Coastal Civil Engineering, School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Haixu","family":"Duan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"China Railway 16th Bureau Group Co., Ltd., Chaoyang District, Beijing 100018, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yuxiang","family":"Gan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Fujian Key Laboratory of Digital Simulations for Coastal Civil Engineering, School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Shenghui","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Fujian Key Laboratory of Digital Simulations for Coastal Civil Engineering, School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Man","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Fujian Key Laboratory of Digital Simulations for Coastal Civil Engineering, School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China"},{"name":"China Railway 16th Bureau Group Co., Ltd., Chaoyang District, Beijing 100018, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xu","family":"Zhao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"China Railway 16th Bureau Group Co., Ltd., Chaoyang District, Beijing 100018, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Enpu","family":"Xu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"China Railway 23th Bureau Group Co., Ltd., Chengdu 610072, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"44","article-title":"The Application of Plastic Drainage Board Preloading Method in Hydraulic Embankments","volume":"47","author":"Li","year":"2018","journal-title":"Henan Water Conserv. 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