Seminar - Dong-Sheng Jeng - Application of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) in Coastal Engineering

Wednesday, September 1, 2004, 1.10 - 1.50 pm
Civil Engineering Lecture Room 3

Abstract

The solution to coastal engineering problems is commonly a complicated process, which may not be able to simulate perfectly through either numerical modeling or physical modeling due to uncertainty. An Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is an information system simulating the ability of a biological neural network by interconnecting many simple neurons. The origins of artificial neural networks are in the field of biology. The biological brain consists of billions of highly interconnected neurons forming a neural network. Human information processing depends on this connection system of nervous cells. Based on this advantage of information processing, neural networks can easily exploit the massively parallel local processing and distributed storage properties in the brain.

Recently, artificial neural network (ANN) models have been widely applied to various relevant civil engineering areas such as geotechnical engineering, water resources and coastal engineering. In this seminar, a few examples will be used to demonstrate the application of ANN model in coastal engineering problem. These include: (1) forecasting of tidal level and (2) estimation of the wave-induced liquefaction potential.