Combination of Principal Component Analysis and Time-Frequency Representation for P-Wave Arrival Detection

Abstract

Seismic events are phenomena which commonly occur in the mining industry. Due to their dangerous character, such information as the energy of the potential event, the location of hazardous regions with higher seismic activity is considered valuable. However, the acquisition of this information is almost impossible without the ability to detect the onset time of the seismic event. The main objectives of algorithms in finding P-wave are high accuracy, reasonable time of operation, and automatic detection of wave arrival. In this paper, an innovative method which incorporates principal component analysis (PCA) with time-frequency representation of the signal is proposed. Due to the significant difference between the spectra of recorded seismic wave and pure noise which precedes the event, time-frequency representation allows for better accuracy of signal change detection. However, with an additional domain, the complexity rises. Thus, the incorporation of PCA (which is known for high efficiency in lowering data dimensions while maintaining original information) seems to be recommended. In order to show the feasibility of the method, it will be tested on real data originating from monitoring system used in underground mine.