A Spatio-Temporal Dam Deformation Zoning Method Considering Non-Uniform Distribution of Monitoring Information

Deformation is the most intuitive indicator of the actual working status of a concrete dam. Zoning the variation regulation of dam deformation is one of the key parts of dam safety evaluation and risk assessment. However, the sample points reflecting deformation and variation characteristic information are non-uniformly distributed, thus it is difficult to cluster the data samples by traditional clustering methods. To solve this problem, a spatio-temporal zoning method of dam deformation considering non-uniform distribution of monitoring information is proposed. Firstly, the preprocessed deformation data are utilized to establish the similarity-distance zoning indicators using the absolute deformation, the deformation increase and the relative deformation increase respectively; then the deformation data are transferred into the Cartesian coordinate system, known as sample points. Secondly, utilize the improved Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise (DBSCAN) algorithm to cluster the points. The clustering parameters M and delta are determined by an optimization algorithm with an evaluation index as the objective function, then the sample points representing time sections or spatial monitoring points are clustered through dynamically updating the neighborhood radius value epsilon. Moreover, several artificial data sets are selected to demonstrate that the improved DBSCAN algorithm is with more obvious superiority in non-uniform clustering compared to traditional algorithms. Deformation data of an existing concrete dam are presented and discussed to validate the established zoning method.