Prediction of lateral spreading displacement using conditional Generative Adversarial Network (cGAN)

Lateral spreading is the most pervasive type of earthquake-induced ground deformation, which can cause considerable damage to engineered structures and lifelines. There are several factors, such as soil properties and ground motion characteristics that affect the liquefaction induced lateral spread. This inherent complexity and nonlinear relationship between the variables make it difficult to predict lateral spread with high accuracy. There are several empirical and machine learning models developed to predict lateral spread. In this study, a conditional generative adversarial network (cGAN) is developed to predict the horizontal ground displacements. A tenfold cross validation is used to assess the model performance. The average accuracy of the model for both free face and ground slope conditions are found to be 82% and 68%, respectively. Shapley additive explanations based sensitivity analysis was carried out to identify the important parameters that influence the lateral displacement.