Integration of grey analysis with artificial neural network for classification of slope failure

Abstract

With the advent of technology and the introduction of computational intelligent methods, the prediction of slope failure using the machine learning (ML) approach is rapidly growing for the past few decades. This study employs an “artificial neural network” (ANN) to predict the slope failures based on historical circular slope cases. Using the feed-forward back-propagation algorithm with a multilayer perceptron network, ANN is a powerful ML method capable of predicting the complex model of slope cases. However, the prediction result of ANN can be improved by integrating the statistical analysis method, namely grey relational analysis (GRA), to the ANN model. GRA is capable of identifying the influencing factors of the input data based on the correlation level of the reference sequence and comparability sequence of the dataset. This statistical machine learning model can analyze the slope data and eliminate the unnecessary data samples to improve the prediction performance. Grey relational analysis-artificial neural network (GRANN) prediction model was developed based on six slope factors: unit weight, friction angle, cohesion, pore pressure ratio, slope height, and slope angle, with the factor of safety (FOS) as the output factor. The prediction results were analyzed based on accuracy percentage and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) values. It shows that the GRANN model has outperformed the ANN model by giving 99% accuracy and 0.999 ROC value, compared with 91% and 0.929.