Predicting the shear strength parameters of rock: A comprehensive intelligent approach

In the design of underground excavation, the shear strength (SS) is a key characteristic. It describes the way the rock material resists the shear stress-induced deformations. In general, the measurement of the parameters related to rock shear strength is done through laboratory experiments, which are costly, damaging, and time-consuming. Add to this the difficulty of preparing core samples of acceptable quality, particularly in case of highly weathered and fractured rock. This study applies rock index test to the indirect measurement of the SS parameters of shale. For this aim, two efficient artificial intelligence methods, namely (1) adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) implemented by subtractive clustering method (SCM) and (2) support vector regression (SVR) optimized by Harmony Search (HS) algorithm, are proposed. Note that, it is the first work that predicts the SS parameters of shale through ANFIS-SCM and SVR-HS hybrid models. In modeling processes of ANFIS-SCM and SVR-HS, the results obtained from the rock index tests were set as inputs, while the SS parameters were set as outputs. By reviewing the obtained results, it was found that both ANFIS-SCM and SVR-HS models can provide acceptable predictions for interlocking and friction angle parameters, however, ANFIS-SCM showed a better generalization capability.