Several models for tunnel boring machine performance prediction based on machine learning

This paper aims to show how to use several Machine Learning (ML) methods to estimate the TBM penetration rate systematically (TBM-PR). To this end, 1125 datasets including uniaxial compressive strength (UCS), Brazilian tensile strength (BTS), punch slope index (PSI), distance between the planes of weakness (DPW), orientation of discontinuities (alpha angle-a), rock fracture class (RFC), and actual/measured TBM-PRs were established. To evaluate the ML methods'ability to perform, the 5-fold cross-validation was taken into consideration. Eventually, comparing the ML outcomes and the TBM monitoring data indicated that the ML methods have a very good potential ability in the prediction of TBM-PR. However, the long short-term memory model with a correlation coefficient of 0.9932 and a route mean square error of 2.68E-6 outperformed the remaining six ML algorithms. The backward selection method showed that PSI and RFC were more and less significant parameters on the TBM-PR compared to the others.