A combination of fuzzy Delphi method and hybrid ANN-based systems to forecast ground vibration resulting from blasting

This study presents a new input parameter selection and modeling procedure in order to control and predict peak particle velocity (PPV) values induced by mine blasting. The first part of this study was performed through the use of fuzzy Delphi method (FDM) to identify the key input variables with the deepest influence on PPV based on the experts’ opinions. Then, in the second part, the most effective parameters on PPV were selected to be applied in hybrid artificial neural network (ANN)-based models i.e., genetic algorithm (GA)-ANN, particle swarm optimization (PSO)-ANN, imperialism competitive algorithm (ICA)-ANN, artificial bee colony (ABC)-ANN and firefly algorithm (FA)-ANN for the prediction of PPV. Many hybrid ANN-based models were constructed according to the most influential parameters of GA, PSO, ICA, ABC and FA optimization techniques and 5 hybrid ANN-based models were proposed to predict PPVs induced by blasting. Through simple ranking technique, the best hybrid model was selected. The obtained results revealed that the FA-ANN model is able to offer higher accuracy level for PPV prediction compared to other implemented hybrid models. Coefficient of determination (R(2)) results of (0.8831, 0.8995, 0.9043, 0.9095 and 0.9133) and (0.8657, 0.8749, 0.8850, 0.9094 and 0.9097) were obtained for train and test stages of GA-ANN, PSO-ANN, ICA-ANN, ABC-ANN and FA-ANN, respectively. The results showed that all hybrid models can be used to solve PPV problem, however, when the highest prediction performance is needed, the hybrid FA-ANN model would be the best choice.