Deep-Learning-Based Strong Ground Motion Signal Prediction in Real Time

Processing ground motion signals at early stages can be advantageous for issuing public warnings, deploying first-responder teams, and other time-sensitive measures. Multiple Deep Learning (DL) models are presented herein, which can predict triaxial ground motion accelerations upon processing the first-arriving 0.5 s of recorded acceleration measurements. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and the K-means clustering algorithm were utilized to cluster 17,602 accelerograms into 3 clusters using their metadata. The accelerograms were divided into 1 million input–output pairs for training, 100,000 for validation, and 420,000 for testing. Several non-overlapping forecast horizons were explored (1, 10, 50, 100, and 200 points). Various architectures of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) were trained and tested, such as Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN), Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks, and CNN-LSTMs. The utilized training methodology applied different aspects of supervised and unsupervised learning. The LSTM model demonstrated superior performance in terms of short-term prediction. A prediction horizon of 10 timesteps in the future with a Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) value of 8.43 × 10−6 g was achieved. In other words, the LSTM model exhibited a performance improvement of 95% compared to the baseline benchmark, i.e., ANN. It is worth noting that all the considered models exhibited acceptable real-time performance (0.01 s) when running in testing mode. The CNN model demonstrated the fastest computational performance among all models. It predicts ground accelerations under 0.5 ms on an Intel Core i9-10900X CPU (10 cores). The models allow for the implementation of real-time structural control responses via intelligent seismic protection systems (e.g., magneto-rheological (MR) dampers).