Ocean Engineering 38 (2011) 1522–1527

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Ocean Engineering
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/oceaneng

Model tree approach for prediction of pile groups scour due to waves
A. Etemad-Shahidi n, N. Ghaemi
Enviro-hydroinformatics COE, School of Civil Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 16765-163, Tehran, Iran

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Scour around piles could endanger the stability of the structures placed on them. Hence, an accurate
Received 10 January 2011 estimation of the scour depth around piles is very important in coastal and marine engineering. Due to
Accepted 17 July 2011 the complex interaction between the wave, seabed and pile group; prediction of the scour depth is not
Editor-in-Chief: A.I. Incecik
an easy task and the available empirical formulas have limited accuracy. Recently, soft computing
Available online 12 August 2011
methods such as Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) and Support Vector Machines (SVMs) have been
Keywords: used for the prediction of the scour depth. However, these methods do not give enough insight about
Scour depth the process and are not as easy to use as the empirical equations. In this study, new formulas are given
Pile group that are easy to use, accurate and physically sound. Available empirical equations for estimating the
Soft computing method
pile group scour depth such as those of Sumer et al. (1992) and Bayram and Larson (2000), are less
Model tree
accurate compared to the given equations. These equations are as accurate as other soft computing
Probabilistic design
methods such as ANN and SVM. Moreover, in this study, safety factors are given for different levels of
acceptable risks, which can be so useful for engineers.
& 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Different arrangement of pile groups are widely used as
support elements for offshore and coastal structures. Scour
around the piles is one of the most important aspects of the
structure stability. Scouring causes the structure stability to be
decreased significantly and may lead to its failure. In addition to
the piles’ arrangement; pile geometry, sediment and waves
properties are important in the prediction of the scour depth
around pile groups.
Although several studies have been conducted on the wave
scour around single piles (e.g. Palmer, 1969; Sumer et al. (1992);
Guven et al., 2009), there are limited studies available on the
wave-induced scour around pile groups. Chow and Herbich
(1978) studied scour around different arrangements of pile
groups. They found that the relative scour depth (S/H), where S
is the equilibrium scour depth and H is the wave height, increases
with the increase in h/gT2 where h is the water depth, g is the
gravity and T is the wave period. They also investigated the
relationship between pile’s Reynolds number, relative depth and
sediment number for pile groups with 3, 4 and 6 piles. From these
experiments, they noticed the effects of gap to diameter ratio
(G/D), where G is the distance between piles and D is the pile’s
diameter on S. Scour around various arrangements of pile groups
n
Corresponding author. Tel.: þ9821 77240399; fax: þ 9821 77240398.
E-mail addresses: etemad@iust.ac.ir,
etemadshahidi@yahoo.com (A. Etemad-Shahidi).
was also studied by Sumer and Fredsoe (1998). The main focus of
their study was on the scour depth variation in different pile
arrangements and Keulegan–Carpenter numbers (KC). They found
that the scour depth is governed by KC for small values of G/D.
The above mentioned researchers examined different pile
arrangements but did not propose any equation to predict the scour
depth around pile groups. A series of field experiments on the wave
scour around a single arrangement of pile groups was conducted by
Bayram and Larson (2000). They presented an empirical equation for
estimation of the scour depth as a function of KC. They also modified
the equation presented by Sumer et al. (1992) for a single pile to
predict the scour depth around a group of piles.
In brief, predictive models developed for estimating their scour
depth are given for a fixed type of arrangement and do not
consider piles arrangement parameters properly. Hence, a trans-
parent and robust model can be very useful for this purpose. One
of the most common soft computing method, i.e., Artificial Neural
Networks (ANNs) has been used for the estimation of scour depth
(e.g. Kambekar and Deo, 2003; Azamathulla et al., 2005, 2010,
2011; Bateni and Jeng, 2007; Bateni et al., 2007a, 2007b; Lee et al.,
2007). Kambekar and Deo (2003) used ANN for the estimation of
wave-induced scour around pile groups. They used field data of
Bayram and Larson (2000) and showed that ANN could be a
suitable model for the prediction of the scour hole geometry.
Scour around pile groups was also investigated by Khosronejad
et al. (2003) with a feed-forward Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP). In
addition, Bateni et al. (2007b) used Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Infer-
ence System (ANFIS) to evaluate the scour depth around pile
groups and compared their results with those of empirical studies.

0029-8018/$ - see front matter & 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.oceaneng.2011.07.012
 A. Etemad-Shahidi, N. Ghaemi / Ocean Engineering 38 (2011) 1522–1527
Their study showed that ANN was more accurate than existing
empirical equations. In their study, only a single pile arrangement
was considered and geometrical parameters such as G/D and
number of piles were not considered. Azamathulla et al. (2010)
also used ANN and Genetic Programming (GP) to predict the pier
scour depth. They found that GP was more effective in predicting
the scour depth when compared to regression equations and
ANNs. Recently, Ghazanfari-Hashemi et al. (2011) using Support
Vector Machine (SVM) and ANN estimated scour depth around
pile groups with different arrangements. They showed that the
scour depth is governed by KC and also the pile arrangement
parameters.
The main purpose of this study is to develop a robust and
transparent model for the prediction of the scour depth for
different pile arrangements. Hence, M50 , as one of the algorithms
of Model Tree, is used for developing predictive and simple
formulas. Unlike most of the soft computing methods, which
are opaque, M50 algorithm can present formulas that are physi-
cally understandable and sound. Previously, M50 has been used
successfully to predict sediment transport (Bhattacharya et al.,
2007), significant wave height (Etemad-Shahidi and Mahjoobi,
2009) and breakwater response (Etemad-Shahidi and Bonakdar,
2009; Bonakdar and Etemad-Shahidi, 2011).
This paper is outlined as follows: a background about the
studies conducted on pile group scour depth is given in Section 2.
Model Tree and M50 algorithm are described in Section 3. The
used dataset and modeling approach are given in Section 4
followed by the results and discussion in Section 5. Finally, the
summary and conclusion are presented in Section 7.
2. Background
Scour around a single round pile depends on three classes of
parameters i.e. the wave characteristics, the sediment properties and
the pile geometry. The functional relationship between equilibrium
scour depth for a single pile is (Sumer et al., 1992)
S ¼ f ðT,d50 ,Um ,Ufm ,D,Gs , nÞ
where d50 is the medium sediment diameter, Um is the maximum
undisturbed orbital velocity at the sea bottom just above the wave
boundary, Ufm is the shear velocity at the undisturbed bed given by
Ufm ¼(0.5f)0.5Um in which f is the wave friction factor, Gs is the specific
gravity of sediments and n is the kinematic viscosity. With the help of
dimensional analysis, this relationship can be presented in the
following dimensionless form (Sumer et al., 1992):
S=D ¼ f ðRe ,Ns , y,KCÞ
where Re is the pile Reynolds number, Ns is the sediment number and
y is the Shields parameter. These are defined as:
Um D
Re ¼
n
Um
Ns ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
gðGs 1Þd50
2
Ufm D
y¼
gðGs 1Þd50
Um T
KC ¼
D are the ones that are the result of splitting the node according to
These dimensionless parameters account for the effects of
different physical processes that occur during the scour, such as
flow-structure interaction, flow-seabed interaction and sediment
transport. In Eq. (2) the Reynolds number and Keulegan–
Carpenter number account for the flow pattern around the piles.
1523
The Shields parameter and sediment number describes the flow
on the seabed process.
For scour around a pile group, G, number of piles parallel to the
flow (m) and number of piles normal to the flow (n) are also
important. Thus, the dimensionless function for scour around a
pile group can be written as:
S=D ¼ f ðRe ,Ns , y,KC,G=D,n,mÞ ð7Þ
Available empirical formulas for estimating the scour depth
around a pile group are, in fact, the ones for single piles that are
modified for a group pile. In these formulas effective diameter
(De) is used to account for pile arrangement. According to Bayram
and Larson (2000), De is the diameter of a hypothetical circle
having an area equal to the parallelogram that connects the
center of the piles. The equation given by Sumer et al. (1992)
for prediction of the scour depth around a single pile was
modified for a pile group by Bayram and Larson (2000) as:
S=De ¼ 1:3f1exp½0:03ðKC6Þgfor KC 46 ð8Þ
By using their field measurement, Bayram and Larson (2000)
also presented the following equation for the scour depth around
2  2 pile groups:
S=De ¼ 0:023KC ð9Þ
In these empirical equations, the scour depth around a pile
group depends mostly on KC and is generally greater than scour
around a single pile since De is larger than D.
3. Model Trees (MTs)
Model Tree is one of the robust and suitable methods for
prediction and categorizing. MTs have more accuracy than regres-
sion trees; they are more understandable than ANN (Nahm-Chung
et al., 2010). The MT approach consists of two processes: building
the tree and driving knowledge from it. The tree building process
involves dividing the input space into several regions using linear
regression models (Fig. 1). In the derivation process, a new data
ð1Þ
record is given into one of the leaves of the tree. This process is
done according to a dividing condition of the previous process.
Finally, the predicted output is obtained at the leaf of the tree. M50
algorithm is a modified version of M5 algorithm proposed by
Wang and Witten (1997) that can deal with missing values.
M50 model tree algorithm first builds a regression tree by
splitting the instance space recursively. This process is done for
minimizing the intra-subset variations in values from the root to
the node and through the branch. This variation is measured by
ð2Þ
the standard deviation of the values that reach through the
branch from the root to the node, which is done by calculating
the expected reduction in error from testing each attribute at the
node. The attribute which has the maximum expected error
ð3Þ reduction is selected. This splitting process is terminated when
the class values of all the instances that reach a node vary by less
than 5% of the standard deviation of the original dataset or only a
ð4Þ
few records are left (Quinlan, 1992). The standard deviation
reduction (SDR) is calculated as:
X 9Ii 9
ð5Þ SDR ¼ sdðIÞ  sdðIi Þ ð10Þ
9I9
i
In this equation, I is the set of records that reach the node, Ii
ð6Þ
the chosen parameter and sd is the standard deviation. After
growing the tree, a linear multiple regression model is con-
structed for each inner node. This model is built according to
values related to that node and all the used test parameters in the
sub-tree rooted at that node. If SDR for linear model in the root of
1524 A. Etemad-Shahidi, N. Ghaemi / Ocean Engineering 38 (2011) 1522–1527

The details of these experiments are as follows:

4.1.1. Sumer and Fredsoe (1998) experiment

These experiments were conducted in a wave flume of 4 m in
width, 1 m in depth and 28 m in length. d50 was 0.2 mm and the
water depth was 40 cm in these tests. The scour development was
monitored by an underwater video camera and undisturbed-flow
velocity was measured at a distance of 5 cm from the bed. From
this experiment, 44 sets of data with side by side, tandem and
4  4 arrangements were selected (Fig. 2). Sumer and Fredsoe
(1998) found that the equilibrium scour depth was governed by
KC for small pile spacing. They also showed when the pile spacing
becomes very large, each pile acts like a single pile. They used
several dimensionless diagrams for presenting their results.

4.1.2. Bayram and Larson (2000) field data

Bayram and Larson (2000) measured the scour depth around a
pile group with a 2  2 arrangement (Fig. 3). They used a pile
group located in the Ajigaura Beach in Japan. Their measurements
started from 1975 and ended in 1996. The piles’ diameter were
0.6 m and spacing between the centers of two adjacent piles were
2.67 m. Measurements were performed weekly from 80 stations
for 9 pile groups, which were 30 m away from each other. To
ensure non-breaking wave condition, the reported data were
restricted to the two pile groups that had the farthest distance
from the beach. For constructing the model, 58 sets of data from
this experiment were used. Using these data, they suggested an
empirical formula for scour depth prediction.

4.2. Input and output parameters

Dimensionless parameters were used to build the model tree.

Fig. 1. Splitting of the input space and prediction by the model trees for a new
data. (a) Splitting of the input space such as X1  X2 by the M5 model tree algorithm
This was performed to extend the results from experimental studies
and (b) prediction for new instance by model tree (Nahm-Chung et al., 2010). to real conditions. Input parameters that were employed for training
and testing the model were Re, Ns, y, KC, G/D, n and m. Output
parameter of the model was the scour depth, which was normalized
sub-tree is smaller or equal to the expected error for the sub-tree,
the sub-tree is pruned. After the pruning process, discontinuity
may occur between the pruned leaves and adjacent linear models.
In the smoothing process, the final model in a node is built by
combining the produced model with available models from the
root to the node. In this process, the estimated value in each node
is filtered in the reverse path from the node to the root. In each
node, this value and the predicted value from the linear model is
combined as:

np þkq
P0 ¼ ð11Þ
nþk

where P0 is the prediction passed up to the next higher node, P is

the prediction passed to this node from below, q is the value
predicted by the model at this node, n is the number of training
instances that reach the node below and k is a constant (Wang
and Witten, 1997). Finally, the MT yields a set of linear multi-
variable equations.

4. Dataset and modeling

4.1. Dataset used

For building the model, published data from different experi-

ments were used. 58 field data records collected by Bayram and
Larson (2000) and 44 data records collected in the laboratory by Fig. 2. Configurations of the used pile groups in the laboratory (Sumer and
Sumer and Fredsoe (1998) were used for developing the model. Fredsoe, 1998).
 A. Etemad-Shahidi, N. Ghaemi / Ocean Engineering 38 (2011) 1522–1527 1525

Table 2
Input and output parameters of M5’ model.

Input parameters ln(KC), ln(1 exp(  G/D  0.1)), ln(n), ln(m)

Output parameters ln(S/D)

n0:14 KC 0:47 ð1expðG=D0:1ÞÞ0:16

S=D ¼ 0:48 for G=D 42:46
m0:08
ð13  bÞ
The model is compact and has good interpretability. According
to Eq. (13a, b) as KC decreases, scour depth decreases and when
KC becomes zero scour does not occur. This result is physically
sound and is in line with the results of field and laboratory
studies. According to the study of Sumer and Fredsoe (1998), by
Fig. 3. Configuration of the pile group in the field (Bayram and Larson,2000). increasing G/D scour depth increases but when G/D becomes very
large, there would be no interaction between piles and each pile
act like a single pile. This physical behavior is by considering
Table 1
Range of the parameters used for the prediction of wave scour around pile groups. (1 exp( G/D  0.1)) in the equations. This increases as G/D
increases with the maximum value of 1. Eq. (13a, b) also shows
Parameters Min Max Mean Std. dev that scour depth increases by increasing n. This means that by
increasing the effecting width, scour depth increases. This beha-
KC 3.0 37.0 14.8549 7.2043
y 0.02 0.64 0.1843 0.1219
vior is physically sound and is also seen in current-induced pile
G/D 0.0 3.45 2.1738 1.5184 group scour (Richardson and Davis, 2001). The developed for-
n 1.0 4.0 2.157 0.793 mulas also show that the scour depth decreases as m increases.
m 1.0 4.0 2.098 0.827 This is because by increasing the number of piles parallel to the
Re 0.3  104 1.1  106 3.76  105 3.37  105
flow, the vortices behind piles are not formed completely and
Ns 1.94 10.69 5.1772 1.5521
S/D 0.1 3.5 1.2654 0.7749 their energy is taken (Sumer et al., 1992). It is notable that for
relatively high G/D values, the effects m and n parameters become
less important. This finding also makes sense because by increas-
by the pile diameter (S/D). The ranges of each of these parameters are ing the distance between piles, they act more as a single pile. A
given in Table 1. As shown, the considered arrangements in this summary of previous empirical equations and the proposed
study cover a wide range of G/D from 0 to 3.45 and n and m varies equations are given in Table 3.
from 1 to 4. Moreover, KC numbers vary from 3 to 37and S/D varies The results of this study were compared with those of
between 0.1 and 3.5. empirical equations in addition to the results derived from SVM
and ANN models of Ghazanfari-Hashemi et al. (2011). To compare
the performances quantitatively, parameters such as the correla-
5. Results and discussion tion coefficient (CC), root mean square error (RMSE), scatter index
(SI), index of agreement (Ia) and discrepancy ratio (DR) were
The whole dataset consisting of 102 data point was divided calculated as follows:
into two parts for training and testing. 80% of data points were P
ðxi xÞðyi yÞ
used for training and 20% were used for testing the model. M50 CC ¼ qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
P P ð14Þ
model tree only presents a linear relationship between input and ðxi xÞ2 ðyi yÞ2
output variables, while the relation between governing para- rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
meters in scouring and scour depth is not necessarily linear. Thus 1X
RMSE ¼ ðxi yi Þ2 ð15Þ
the model was developed with ln (inputs) and ln (output) to N
overcome this constraint (Etemad-Shahidi et al., 2010). Different pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
P
combinations of governing parameters were used for building the ð1=NÞ ðxi yi Þ2
SI ¼ ð16Þ
model and only the simplest and the most accurate model is x
described here. Table 2 gives the input and output parameters for P
ðxi yi Þ2
building tree model. Ia ¼ 1 P ð17Þ
ð9xi x9 þ9yi y9Þ2
Using logarithm of non-dimension numbers, the following
equations were obtained using M50 : 1 X yi
ln(S/D)¼0.46 ln(n)þ0.95 ln(KC)þ0.20 ln(1  exp( G/D DR ¼ ð18Þ
N xi
 0.1)) 0.67 ln(m) 2.99
where xi and yi denote the measured and the predicted values,
for lnð1 expðG=D0:1ÞÞ r 20:08 ð12  aÞ respectively, and N is the number of measurements. x and y are
ln(S/D)¼0.14 ln(n)þ0.47 ln(KC)þ0.16 ln(1 exp(  G/D the corresponding mean values of the measured and predicted
 0.1)) 0.08 ln(m)  0.74 parameters, respectively.
These statistical parameters are given for the test data in
for lnð1expðG=D20:1ÞÞ 4 20:08 ð12  bÞ Table 4. As shown, MT is more accurate than the empirical
After the transformation, the formulas become formulas. In Sumer et al. (1992) and Bayram and Larson (2000)
empirical equations, S is only a function of KC. However, in the
n0:46 KC 0:95 ð1expðG=D0:1ÞÞ0:20 developed mode, the arrangement of pile group is also consid-
S=D ¼ 0:05 for G=D r 2:46
m0:67 ered. Fig. 4 presents the comparison between the measured and
ð13  aÞ predicted values of S/D for test data by all approaches.
1526 A. Etemad-Shahidi, N. Ghaemi / Ocean Engineering 38 (2011) 1522–1527

Table 3 2.6
Various approaches to estimate wave scour depth around group of piles. 2.4
2.2
Author Formula
2
Sumer et al. (1992) S=De ¼ 1:3f1exp½0:03ðKC6Þg 1.8
Bayram and Larson S=De ¼ 0:023 KC

Safety Factor
1.6
(2000)
8 1.4
Model Tree 0:46 0:95
< 0:05 n KC ð1expðG=D0:1ÞÞ
0:20
, G=D r 2:46
0:67 m
S=D ¼ n0:14 KC 0:47 ð1expðG=D0:1ÞÞ0:16
1.2
: 0:48 , G=D 4 2:46
m0:08
1
0.8
0.6
Table 4
0.4
Performance indices of various approaches to predict the scour depth.
0.2
Approach Error measures 0
Sumer et al. Bayram and Larson ANN SVM Model Tree
RMSE SI (%) CC Ia DR (mean 7 std)
Fig. 5. Box plots of empirical and soft computing methods.
Sumer et al. (1992) 1.29 100.3 0.05 0.36 1.32 71.93
Bayram and Larson (2000) 1.25 97.3 0.12 0.42 1.59 72.07
Table 5
ANN 0.40 30.7 0.85 0.91 1.23 70.60
Sensitivity analysis of the governing parameters.
SVM 0.32 25.0 0.90 0.95 1.03 70.45
Model Tree 0.34 26.7 0.92 0.93 0.99 70.32
Model Error statistics

RMSE SI (%) CC Ia DR (mean 7std)

3
Sumer et al. (1992) MT (Eq. (13a, b)) 0.34 26.7 0.92 0.93 0.997 0.32
Bayram and Larson (2000) MT in the absence of KC 0.87 68.9 0.81 0.16 0.697 0.38
2.5 ANN
MT in the absence of G/D 0.56 43.2 0.82 0.78 0.957 0.46
SVM
Model Tree
MT in the absence of m 0.35 27.4 0.91 0.93 1.017 0.36
MT in the absence of n 0.35 27.0 0.92 0.93 1.047 0.40
2
S/D (Predicted)

1.5 the risk of failure of the structure due to the scour cannot be
determined. This limitation can be overcome using a safety factor,
which is directly related to the acceptable/desired level of risk.
1
Fig. 5 presents the box plots and safety factors for different
approaches. As seen, the traditional formulas are generally more
0.5 conservative and have the highest uncertainties (longer box plots)
while soft computing methods show good prediction close to
0 1.0 with less scatter. In addition, their safety factors are generally
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 smaller. For example, if 10% risk is acceptable, results from MT
S/D (Observed) model should be multiplied by 1.4 and this factor is more than
2.5 when using Sumer et al. (1992) equation.
Fig. 4. Comparison of measured and predicted normalized scour depths using
different approaches.

Fig. 4 and Table 4 show that the soft computing methods are
accurate enough. Statistical parameters of SVM, MT and ANN are
close to each other and have a negligible difference. The most
important advantage of MT, compared to other soft computing
methods, is giving direct mathematical expressions, which can be
used easily for estimating the scour depth. In addition the given
equations can give more insights into the understanding of the
physical process. The other advantage of MT is the simplicity of
developing models. In order to develop ANN and SVM models,
several parameters such as the number of hidden neurons must
be optimized while this is not the case in MT. In addition, the run
time of MT is less than those of SVM and ANN. The time taken for
running MT using a PC with a Pentium 4 processor of 2.67 GHz
and 2 GB RAM was 0.14 s. However according to Ghazanfari-
Hashemi et al. (2011) running SVM and ANN took 1.05 and
17.88 s, respectively, in this case.
A reliable prediction of scour depth is vital for engineers to
have a reliable, technically correct and economic design. The box
plots of DR can be used to assess the reliability of the used model.
Based on Table 4, it seems that the traditional formulas are more
conservative than the proposed ones. However, it is impossible to
know the uncertainty/safety factor incorporated in them. Hence,
6. Sensitivity analysis
Sensitivity analysis is used to find out the relative importance
of independent parameters. For this purpose, parameters were
excluded (one by one) from the inputs and the models were
developed. The error measures are shown in Table 5. This table
shows that S/D is mostly affected by KC. According to this table,
the next important parameters are G/D, m and n, respectively. The
order of parameters’ importance and the sensitivity of S/D to each
of them conform with the results obtained recently by
Ghazanfari-Hashemi et al. (2011).
7. Summary and conclusion
In this study, M50 model tree was used to predict the pile
group scour depth in waves. Two series of laboratory and field
data consisting of different pile group arrangements were used for
building the model. Then, the results of the model tree were
compared with those of empirical methods of Sumer et al. (1992)
and Bayram and Larson (2000) and also results from Support
Vector Machine (SVM) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN)
models. Error measures showed that soft computing methods
 A. Etemad-Shahidi, N. Ghaemi / Ocean Engineering 38 (2011) 1522–1527
are more accurate than the empirical methods. Although these
measures were nearly the same for SVM, MT and ANN; MT was
preferred because it presents easier to use and physically sound
equations, is less time-consuming and does not need optimization
of several parameters. MT showed that the scour depth around
pile groups is governed by the Keulegan–Carpenter number (KC),
gap to diameter ratio (G/D), number of piles parallel to the flow
(m) and number of piles normal to the flow (n). According to the
given formulas, the S/D increases by the increase in KC, G/D and n,
while it decreases by the increase in m. It was also found that for
large G/D values, the importance of n and m become less; which is
physically sound. A sensitivity analysis was also conducted to
investigate the effect of different input parameters on the equili-
brium scour depth. The sensitivity analysis showed that the scour
depth was mainly governed by KC and G/D. In order to address the
uncertainty in the developed formulas, a probabilistic approach
using safety factors was suggested for practical purposes.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Samaneh Ghazanfari for
providing the original models and University of Waikato for the
WEKA software. In addition, the authors are grateful to Moham-
mad H. Kazeminezhad for his helpful suggestions. This study was
partly supported by the Deputy of Research, Iran University of
Science and Technology (IUST).
References
Azamathulla, H.Md., Ghani, A.A., 2011. ANFIS-based approach for predicting the
scour depth at culvert outlets. Journal of Pipeline Systems Engineering and
Practice 2 (1), 35–40.
Azamathulla, H.Md., Ghani, A.A., Zakaria, N.A., Aytac, G., 2010. Genetic program-
ming to predict bridge pier scour. Journal of Hydraulic Engineering 136 (3),
165–169.
Azmathullah, H.Md., Deo, M.C., Deolalikar, P.B., 2005. Neural networks for
estimation of scour downstream of ski-jump bucket. Journal of Hydraulic
Engineering 131 (10), 898–908.
Bateni, S.M., Borghei, S.M., Jeng, D.S., 2007a. Neural network and neuro-fuzzy
assessments for scour depth around bridge piers. Engineering Applications of
Artificial Intelligence 20, 401–414.
1527
Bateni, S.M., Jeng, D.S., Melville, B.W., 2007b. Bayesian neural networks for
prediction of equilibrium and time-dependent scour depth around bridge
piers. Advances in Engineering Software 38, 102–111.
Bateni, S.M., Jeng, D.S., 2007. Estimation of pile group scour using adaptive neuro-
fuzzy approach. Ocean Engineering 34, 1344–1354.
Bayram, A., Larson, M., 2000. Analysis of scour around a group of vertical piles in
the field. Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal and Ocean Engineering 126,
215–220.
Bhattacharya, B., Price, R.K., Solomatine, D.P., 2007. Machine learning approach to
modeling sediment transport. Journal of Hydraulic Engineering 133, 440–450.
Bonakdar, L., Etemad-Shahidi, A., 2011. Predicting wave run-up on rubble-mound
structures using M5 model tree. Ocean Engineering 38, 111–118.
Chow, W.Y., Herbich, J.B., 1978. Scour around a group of piles. In: Proceedings of
the Offshore Technology Conference. Dallas, pp. 2243–2254.
Etemad-Shahidi, A., Bonakdar, L., 2009. Design of rubble-mound breakwaters
using M50 machine learning method. Applied Ocean Research 31, 197–201.
Etemad-Shahidi, A., Mahjoobi, J., 2009. Comparison between M50 model tree and
neural networks for prediction of significant wave height in Lake Superior.
Ocean Engineering 36, 1175–1181.
Etemad-Shahidi, A., Yasa, R., Kazeminezhad, M.H., 2010. Prediction of Wave
Induced Scour under Submarine Pipelines using Machine Learning Approach.
Ghazanfari-Hashemi, S., Etemad-Shahidi, A., Kazeminezhad, M.H., Mansoori, A.R.,
2011. Prediction of pile groups scour in waves using support vector machines
and ANN. Journal of Hydroinformatics 13, 609–620.
Guven, A., Azmathulla, H., Zakaria, N., 2009. Linear genetic programming for
prediction of circular pile scour. Ocean Engineering 36, 985–991.
Kambekar, A.R., Deo, M.C., 2003. Estimation of pile group using neural networks.
Applied Ocean Research 25, 225–234.
Khosronejad, A., Montazer, G.A., Ghodsian, M., 2003. Estimation of scour proper-
ties around vertical pile using ANNs. International Journal of Sediment
Research 18, 290–300.
Lee, T.L., Jeng, D.S., Zhang, G.H., Hong, J.H., 2007. Neural network modeling for
estimation of scour depth around bridge piers. Journal of Hydrodynamic 19
(3), 378–386.
Nahm-Chung, J., Popescu, I., Kelderman, P., Solomatine, D.P., Price, R.K., 2010.
Application of model trees and other machine learning techniques for algal
growth prediction in Yongdam reservoir, Republic of Korea. Journal of
Hydroinformatics 12, 262–274.
Palmer, H.D., 1969. Wave induced scour on the sea floor. In: Proceedings of the
Civil Engineering. ASCE, New York, pp. 703–716.
Quinlan, J.R., 1992. Learning with continuous classes. In: Adams, Sterling (Eds.),
Proceedings of AI’92, World Scientific, pp. 343–348.
Richardson, E.V., Davis, E.V., 2001. Evaluating Scour at Bridges. Hydraulic Engi-
neering Circular No. 18 (HEC-18), 4rd ED., Rep. No. FHWA NHI 01-001, Federal
Highway Administration, Washington, DC.
Sumer, B.M., Fredsoe, J., 1998. Wave scour around a group of vertical piles. Journal
of Waterway, Port, Coastal, and Ocean Engineering 124, 248–256.
Sumer, B.M., Fredsoe, J., Christiansen, N., 1992. Scour around a vertical pile in
waves. Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal and Ocean Engineering 118, 15–31.
Wang, Y., Witten, I.H., 1997. Induction of model trees for predicting continuous
lasses. In: Proceedings of the Poster Papers of the European Conference on
Machine Learning, University of Economics, Faculty of Informatics and
Statistics, Prague.