Tunnel Geology Prediction Using a Neural Network Based on Instrumented Drilling Test

Reliable geology prediction is of great importance in ensuring the stability and safety of tunnels and other underground engineering projects. This paper presents basic neural network and deep neural network models using a genetic algorithm (GA) to predict geological conditions for tunneling. Batch normalization and GA optimization approaches are employed in the deep neural network. A case study of the Jiudingshan Tunnel on the Chuxiong–Dali Highway in Yunnan, China, shows that the neural network method can predict geological conditions well, especially for rock types with voluminous data, for which predictive accuracy exceeds 90%. These results suggest that an appropriately trained neural network can reliably and accurately predict the geological conditions behind the tunnel face. The area under the curve (AUC) and confusion matrix evaluations show that the accuracy performance of the deep neural network exceeds that of the basic neural network. The feature importance of each drilling parameter was also analyzed; the results indicate that a neural network model for geology prediction can achieve predictive accuracy with few drilling parameters. The neural network geology prediction method provides reliable results for dynamic tunnel design.