TS-PIELM: Time-Stepping Physics-Informed Extreme Learning Machine Facilitates Soil Consolidation Analyses

Abstract: Accuracy and efficiency of the conventional physics-informed neural network (PINN) need to be improved before it can be a competitive alternative for soil consolidation analyses. This paper aims to overcome these limitations by proposing a highly accurate and efficient physics-informed machine learning (PIML) approach, termed time-stepping physics-informed extreme learning machine (TS-PIELM). In the TS-PIELM framework the consolidation process is divided into numerous time intervals, which helps overcome the limitation of PIELM in solving differential equations with sharp gradients. To accelerate network training, the solution is approximated by a single-layer feedforward extreme learning machine (ELM), rather than using a fully connected neural network in PINN. The input layer weights of the ELM network are generated randomly and fixed during the training process. Subsequently, the output layer weights are directly computed by solving a system of linear equations, which significantly enhances the training efficiency compared to the time-consuming gradient descent method in PINN. Finally, the superior performance of TS-PIELM is demonstrated by solving three typical Terzaghi consolidation problems. Compared to PINN, results show that the computational efficiency and accuracy of the novel TS-PIELM framework are improved by more than 1000 times and 100 times for one-dimensional cases, respectively. This paper provides compelling evidence that PIML can be a powerful tool for computational geotechnics.