Estimation of deformation modulus of coals using artificial neural networks (ANN)

Abstract

In this study, the Young modulus (E) of different coals was investigated using artificial neural networks (ANN). For this purpose, a comprehensive literature survey was carried out to compile such datasets available for the ANN analyses. As a result of the literature survey, a database composed of 81 datasets was formed. In the ANN analyses, uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) and dry density (ρd) of coals were adopted as input parameters. The ANN analysis results demonstrated that the predictive model established in this study could be reliably used to estimate the E for different coals. The correlation of determination value (R2) for the developed model is 0.85, which shows its relative success. In this context, this study can be declared a case study showing the applicability of ANN for the evaluation of E for a wide range of coal types. However, the number of samples and independent variables should be increased to obtain more comprehensive models in future studies.