In this study we determined neural network weights and biases by Imperialist Competitive Algorithm (ICA) in order to train network for predicting earthquake intensity in Richter. For this reason, we used dependent parameters like earthquake occurrence time, epicenter's latitude and longitude in degree, focal depth in kilometer, and the seismological center distance from epicenter and earthquake focal center in kilometer which has been provided by Berkeley data base. The studied neural network has two hidden layer: its first layer has 16 neurons and the second layer has 24 neurons. By using ICA algorithm, average error for testing data is 0.0007 with a variance equal to 0.318. The earthquake prediction error in Richter by MSE criteria for ICA algorithm is 0.101, but by using GA, the MSE value is 0.115.
Abstract This paper is aimed at creating an empirical model for assessing failure potential of highway slopes, with a special attention to the failure characteristics of the highway slopes in the Alishan, Taiwan area prior to, and post, the 1999 Chi-Chi, Taiwan earthquake. The basis of the study is a large database of 955 slope records from four highways in the Alishan area. Artificial neural network (ANN) is utilized to “learn” from this database. The developed ANN model is then used to study the effect of the Chi-Chi earthquake on the slope failure characteristics in the Alishan area. Significant changes in the degrees of influence of several factors (variables) are found and possible reasons for such changes are discussed. The novelty of this paper lies in the fact that the developed ANN models are used as a tool to investigate the slope failure characteristics before and after the Chi-Chi earthquake.