Zoning Elastic Modulus Inversion for High Arch Dams Based on the PSOGSA-SVM Method

Real-time monitoring of the actual elastic modulus is essential and necessary to ensure the safe operation of arch dams. The zoning elastic modulus of a high arch dam is inversed by using deformation safety monitoring data in the operation period, based on the particle swarm optimization with gravitation search algorithm for support vector machine (PSOGSA-SVM) method. Firstly, the measured data of multipoints with a pendulum are separated to construct the initial sample training set; then, an optimal inversion model is established to reflect the complex nonlinear relationship between the mechanical parameters of the high arch dam and the deformation of measured points; finally, the PSOGSA-SVM method is used to train and dynamically update the training set so as to realize the optimization solution of the inversion model. The proposed inversion method is successfully applied to a high arch dam in China to verify its feasibility and validity. The results show that the actual elastic modulus of the dam body is much larger than the initial elastic modulus, which is beneficial to structural stability.