Relevance vector machine applied to slope stability analysis

This paper examines the potential of relevance vector machine (RVM) in slope stability analysis. The nonlinear relationship between slope stability and its influence factors is presented by the relevance vector learning mechanism based on a kernel‐based Bayesian framework. The six input variables used for the RVM for the prediction of stability slope are density (γ), friction angle (C), friction coefficient (?), slope angle (?_r), slope height (H), and pore water pressure (r_u). Comparison of RVM with some other methods is also presented. RVM has been used to compute the error bar. The results presented in this paper clearly highlight that the RVM is a robust tool for the prediction of slope stability. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.