Predicting roof displacement of roadways in underground coal mines using adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system optimized by various physics-based optimization algorithms

Due to the rapid industrialization and the development of the economy in each country,the demand for energy is increasing rapidly.The coal mines have to pace up the mining operations with large production to meet the energy demand.This requirement has led underground coal mines to go deeper with more difficult conditions,especially the mining hazards,such as large deformations,rockburst,coal burst,roof collapse,to name a few.Therefore,this study aims at investigating and predicting the stability of the roadways in underground coal mines exploited by longwall mining method,using various novel intelligent techniques based on physics-based optimization algorithms(i.e.multi-verse optimizer(MVO),equilibrium optimizer(EO),simulated annealing(SA),and Henry gas solubility optimization(HGSO)) and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system(ANFIS),named as MVO-ANFIS,EO-ANFIS,SA-ANFIS and HGSOANFIS models.Accordingly,162 roof displacement events were investigated based on the characteristics of surrounding rocks,such as cohesion,Young’s modulus,density,shear strength,angle of internal friction,uniaxial compressive strength,quench durability index,rock mass rating,and tensile strength.The MVO-ANFIS,EO-ANFIS,SA-ANFIS and HGSO-ANFIS models were then developed and evaluated based on this dataset for predicting roof displacements in roadways of underground mines.The results indicated that the proposed intelligent techniques could accurately predict the roof displacements in roadways of underground mines with an accuracy in the range of 83%-92%.Remarkably,the SA-ANFIS model yielded the most dominant accuracy(i.e.92%).Based on the accurate predictions from the proposed techniques,the reinforced solutions can be timely suggested to ensure the stability of roadways during exploiting coal,especially in the underground coal mines exploited by the longwall mining.

Optimized functional linked neural network for predicting diaphragm wall deflection induced by braced excavations in clays

Deep excavation during the construction of underground systems can cause movement on the ground,especially in soft clay layers.At high levels,excessive ground movements can lead to severe damage to adjacent structures.In this study,finite element analyses(FEM)and the hardening small strain(HSS)model were performed to investigate the deflection of the diaphragm wall in the soft clay layer induced by braced excavations.Different geometric and mechanical properties of the wall were investigated to study the deflection behavior of the wall in soft clays.Accordingly,1090 hypothetical cases were surveyed and simulated based on the HSS model and FEM to evaluate the wall deflection behavior.The results were then used to develop an intelligent model for predicting wall deflection using the functional linked neural network(FLNN)with different functional expansions and activation functions.Although the FLNN is a novel approach to predict wall deflection;however,in order to improve the accuracy of the FLNN model in predicting wall deflection,three swarm-based optimization algorithms,such as artificial bee colony(ABC),Harris’s hawk’s optimization(HHO),and hunger games search(HGS),were hybridized to the FLNN model to generate three novel intelligent models,namely ABC-FLNN,HHO-FLNN,HGS-FLNN.The results of the hybrid models were then compared with the basic FLNN and MLP models.They revealed that FLNN is a good solution for predicting wall deflection,and the application of different functional expansions and activation functions has a significant effect on the outcome predictions of the wall deflection.It is remarkably interesting that the performance of the FLNN model was better than the MLP model with a mean absolute error(MAE)of 19.971,root-mean-squared error(RMSE)of 24.574,and determination coefficient(R^(2))of 0.878.Meanwhile,the performance of the MLP model only obtained an MAE of 20.321,RMSE of 27.091,and R^(2)of 0.851.Furthermore,the results also indicated that the proposed hybrid models,i.e.,ABC-FLNN,HHO-FLNN,HGS-FLNN,yielded more superior performances than those of the FLNN and MLP models in terms of the prediction of deflection behavior of diaphragm walls with an MAE in the range of 11.877 to 12.239,RMSE in the range of 15.821 to 16.045,and R^(2)in the range of 0.949 to 0.951.They can be used as an alternative tool to simulate diaphragm wall deflections under different conditions with a high degree of accuracy.

Predicting rock size distribution in mine blasting using various novel soft computing models based on meta-heuristics and machine learning algorithms

Blasting is well-known as an effective method for fragmenting or moving rock in open-pit mines.To evaluate the quality of blasting,the size of rock distribution is used as a critical criterion in blasting operations.A high percentage of oversized rocks generated by blasting operations can lead to economic and environmental damage.Therefore,this study proposed four novel intelligent models to predict the size of rock distribution in mine blasting in order to optimize blasting parameters,as well as the efficiency of blasting operation in open mines.Accordingly,a nature-inspired algorithm(i.e.,firefly algorithm-FFA)and different machine learning algorithms(i.e.,gradient boosting machine(GBM),support vector machine(SVM),Gaussian process(GP),and artificial neural network(ANN))were combined for this aim,abbreviated as FFA-GBM,FFA-SVM,FFA-GP,and FFA-ANN,respectively.Subsequently,predicted results from the abovementioned models were compared with each other using three statistical indicators(e.g.,mean absolute error,root-mean-squared error,and correlation coefficient)and color intensity method.For developing and simulating the size of rock in blasting operations,136 blasting events with their images were collected and analyzed by the Split-Desktop software.In which,111 events were randomly selected for the development and optimization of the models.Subsequently,the remaining 25 blasting events were applied to confirm the accuracy of the proposed models.Herein,blast design parameters were regarded as input variables to predict the size of rock in blasting operations.Finally,the obtained results revealed that the FFA is a robust optimization algorithm for estimating rock fragmentation in bench blasting.Among the models developed in this study,FFA-GBM provided the highest accuracy in predicting the size of fragmented rocks.The other techniques(i.e.,FFA-SVM,FFA-GP,and FFA-ANN)yielded lower computational stability and efficiency.Hence,the FFA-GBM model can be used as a powerful and precise soft computing tool that can be applied to practical engineering cases aiming to improve the quality of blasting and rock fragmentation.

Hydrologic implications of the isotopic kinetic fractionation of open-water evaporation

The kinetic fractionation of open-water evaporation against the stable water isotope H_2 ^(18)O is an important mechanism underlying many hydrologic studies that use ^(18)O as an isotopic tracer. A recent in-situ measurement of the isotopic water vapor flux over a lake indicates that the kinetic effect is much weaker(kinetic factor 6.2‰) than assumed previously(kinetic factor14.2‰) by lake isotopic budget studies. This study investigates the implications of the weak kinetic effect for studies of deuterium excess-humidity relationships, regional moisture recycling, and global evapotranspiration partitioning. The results indicate that the low kinetic factor is consistent with the deuterium excess-humidity relationships observed over open oceans.The moisture recycling rate in the Great Lakes region derived from the isotopic tracer method with the low kinetic factor is a much better agreement with those from atmospheric modeling studies than if the default kinetic factor of 14.2‰ is used. The ratio of transpiration to evapotranspiration at global scale decreases from 84±9%(with the default kinetic factor) to 76±19%(with the low kinetic factor), the latter of which is in slightly better agreement with other non-isotopic partitioning results.