Shear wave velocity by support vector machine based on geotechnical soil properties

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Abstract. Shear wave velocity (VS) is a basic engineering property implemented in evaluating the soil shear modulus. In many instances it may be preferable to determine VS indirectly by common in-situ tests, such as the Standard Penetration Test (SPT). In this paper, the relationship between VS and geotechnical soil parameters such as standard penetration test blow counts (N160), effective stress and fines content, as well as overburden stress ratio (σvo/σ′vo), is investigated. A new mode based on support vector machine (SVM) approach is proposed to correlate geotechnical parameters and VS, predicated on a total of 620 data sets, including field investigation records for the Kocaeli (Turkey, 1999) and Chi-Chi (Taiwan, 1999) earthquakes. This study addresses the question of whether Support Vector Machine (SVM) approach should be used to estimate VS based on the specified geotechnical variables, and assessing the influence of each variable on VS. Results revealed that SVM, in comparison to previous statistical relations, provides an effective means of efficiently recognizing the patterns in data and accurately predicting the VS.