International Conference on Civil Engineering

Architecture & Urban Sustainable Development

18&19 December 2013, Tabriz , Iran

Prediction of peak shear strength of rock joints

using fuzzy C means clustering

Khabat Amiri Hossaini 1*, Malihe Soltanzali 2, Masaod Askari3

1. M.Sc. of rock mechanics, Golgohar Iron ore and Steel Research Institute,
khabat_amiri@yahoo.com
2.
M.Sc. of rock mechanics, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman
3.
M.Sc. of geology, Golgohar Iron ore and Steel Research Institute, askari148@yahoo.com

Abstract
Studying the behavior of rock mass involves surviving both parameters which control
shear strength of discontinuities and behavior of joints must be simulated using a
constitutive model. The objective of this study is to predict the value of peak shear stress
of rocks based on data from experimental data and using them to construct model by
Fuzzy C means clustering (FCM) techniques. In this Study two models were designed
based on Mamdani and Sugeno Fuzzy Systems. Results showed that Sugeno fuzzy system
could predict this value with correlation coefficient square more than 0.92, but result
showed that Mamdani model could not predict this parameter accurately in comparison
with Sugeno model. So a model which is constructed us in Sugeno type FCM could be
used to predict the value of shear strength of discontinuities based on data gained from
that discontinuity.

Key words: peak shear stress, Fuzzy C means clustering, Sugeno FI

1. Introduction
Fractures can significantly affect the mechanical behavior of rock systems, especially when
these structures are placed near the earth’s surface. More joints present in the rock mass cause
more deformability behavior to the joints behavior [1]. Therefore, the factors that control the
behavior of discontinuities should be identified, and then under a proper behavioral model the
behavior of these joints should be simulated. It is necessary to examine the rock mass
behavior under the different stress fields [2]. Various models and criteria have been provided
to estimate the shear behavior of fractures. Some criteria such as Mohr-Coulomb, Patton [3],
Ladanyi and Archambault [4] and Barton [1] are only used for estimating the peak shear
strength. Because joints shear behavior is very complicated and there are many parameters
that may affect it, each model and criterion only addresses a limited number of the parameters
that influence the shear behavior.
 International Conference on Civil Engineering
Architecture & Urban Sustainable Development
18&19 December 2013, Tabriz , Iran

Artificial intelligence provide some powerful method for scientists and engineer to modeling
every complicated systems, more useable techniques which are widely used in numerical
analysis are Artificial neural networks and fuzzy logic. Soft computing methods have been
widely applied in every area of industry, its provide more simple and less complicated models
to model complex phenomena [5], in this study Fuzzy logic is used to model peak shear
stress and predict that value.

2. Fuzzy systems
Fuzzy logic (FL) and fuzzy inference systems (FIS), first proposed by Zadeh [5], provide a
solution for making decisions based on vague, ambiguous, imprecise or missing data. FL
represents models or knowledge using IF–THEN rules in the form of ‘‘if X and Y then Z’’. A
fuzzy inference system mainly consists of fuzzy rules and membership functions and fuzzi
fication and de-fuzzi fication operations. By applying the fuzzy inference, ordinary crisp input
data produces ordinary crisp output, which is easy to be understood and interpreted. A more
generalized description of fuzzy problems and uncertainty is provided in [6]. Broadly
speaking, there are two categories of fuzzy inference systems, namely Mamdani [7] and
Sugeno-Takagi (ST) FIS, a Mamdani FIS consist of simple rule such as: IF pressure is high
and temperature is low, then volume is small, where pressure and volume and temperature are
linguistic variables; high and small and low are linguistic values that are characterized by
membership functions. ST type of fuzzy rules only involves fuzzy sets or membership
functions in the premise part. A FIS has two inputs and two ST rules can be generally
represented as follows:

R1: if x1 is A11 and x2 is A21 then f1 =p1x1+q1x2+c1

R2: if x1 is A12 and x2 is A22 then f2 =p2x1+q2x2+c2

Represent the first order ST type fuzzy rules. The output part can also be constants, named as
Takagi– Sugeno–Kang fuzzy model [25], and represented as

R1: if x1 is A11 and x2 is A21 then f1 = C1

R2: if x1 is A12 and x2 is A22 then f2 = C2

For complicated problems as discussed in this paper, the first order ST FIS is widely
employed to model the relationships of inputs and outputs.

3. Fuzzy C means clustering

In C means algorithm a data can only belong to one cluster but Fuzzy c-means (FCM) provide
the possibility for a data to belong to two or more clusters. This feature able this method to
model more complicated problems and be widely used in to different engineering methods.
 International Conference on Civil Engineering
Architecture & Urban Sustainable Development
18&19 December 2013, Tabriz , Iran

this method a mathematical algorithm and is based on minimization of the following objective
function:
J  i 1 k 1 uik .d ik  i 1 k 1 uik . xk  vi
c n c n 2
m 2 m
(1)

where m is any real number greater than 1, uik is the degree of membership of xk in the cluster
j, xk is the kth of d-dimensional measured data, vi is the d-dimension center of the cluster, and
||*|| is any norm expressing the similarity between any measured data and the center [8].
Fuzzy partitioning is carried out through an iterative optimization of the objective function
shown above, with the update of membership uik and the cluster centers vi by:
1
uik  2
(2)
c  d ik 
 m1
 j 1 d 
 
 jk 

n m
x .u
vi  k 1 k ik
(3)

n m
u
k 1 ik

The algorithm is composed of the following steps [8]:

Initializing a value to C, m and U
Computing center of clusters (Vi)
Computing dependency matrix based on clusters of step 2.
If Ul1Ul algorithm stops but if don’t, come to step 2.

4. Analysis and modelling

For generating the model, All data was normalized in the [0, 1] interval, then the data set was
divided into two part, 70 percent for training (initializing) the model and 30 percent for testing
the application of Fuzzy systems (this data sets did not apply to the system before), the system
is trained with the training data set and then it was tested with the test data. Data sets which
are used are experimental data which are gained from physical modeling and laboratory
experiments. Plaster and concrete joints with different deformability and strength properties
were prepared and subjected to normal and shear loads. The direct shear tests were applied to
the samples under a wide range of surface roughness and normal load values.

The models in this research were constructed using MATLAB Fuzzy toolbox Based on both
Sugeno and Mamdani FIS. The performance of both systems was studied to give best
condition. The most important parameters which was changing the performances of FCM
models, was number of clusters. So the performance of FCM were Studied with changing this
parameter from 1 to 50, for obtaining best condition. Validation of performance in this study
is in base of correlation coefficient square (R2) and mean square error (MSE).
 International Conference on Civil Engineering
Architecture & Urban Sustainable Development
18&19 December 2013, Tabriz , Iran

5. Results and discussion

Result of modeling bye FCM showed that best value for number of clusters for Mamdani FIS
is 43, by increasing number of clusters from 1 to 43, the value of R2 increased and for values
more than 43, it began to decrease. For Sugeno system this value was 28. Figure 1 shows the
comparison real data and values which are predicted by Sugeno FIS.

Figure 1: Comparision between FCM (Sugeno)

predicted values and real Data

Figure 2: Comparision between FCM (Mamdani)

predicted values and real Data

This figure showed that there is good correlation coefficient between this two values and the
value R² = 0.925 is obtained. Figure 2 shows the comparison real data and values which are
 International Conference on Civil Engineering
Architecture & Urban Sustainable Development
18&19 December 2013, Tabriz , Iran

predicted by Mamdani FIS. This figure showed that there is good correlation coefficient
between this two values and the value R² = 0.775 is obtained.

6. Conclusions
Soft computing is very help full to modeling complicated systems, in this peak shear stress of
rocks are predicted using FCM models with only 84 data sets and correlation factor of
R2=0.925 for Sugeno FIS and R2=0.755 for Mamdani FIS where achieved for test data. So
it’s concluded that Sugeno FIS could predict this parameter very accurately. Also result
confirmed that Sugeno FIS is more accurate than Mamdani FIS. This study showed that soft
computing could be used such a powerful method to predict rock mechanical parameters
especially when they are very complicated to predict. Data used in this research was for
special rocks, so the result of these models could be used for that rocks, for other rocks the
training of FCM must be applied with operational data from that rocks.

7. Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the research and development center and rock mechanics division of
Gole-e-Gohar Mine Company for their financial and technical supports.

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