Uncertainty quantification in tree structure and polynomial regression algorithms toward material indices prediction

Machine learning’s integration into reliability analysis holds substantial potential to ensure infrastructure safety. Despite the merits of flexible tree structure and formulable expression, random forest (RF) and evolutionary polynomial regression (EPR) cannot contribute to reliability-based design...

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Main Authors: Geng-Fu He, Pin Zhang, Zhen-Yu Yin
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press 2025-01-01
Series:Data-Centric Engineering
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Online Access:https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S263267362500005X/type/journal_article
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author Geng-Fu He
Pin Zhang
Zhen-Yu Yin
author_facet Geng-Fu He
Pin Zhang
Zhen-Yu Yin
author_sort Geng-Fu He
collection DOAJ
description Machine learning’s integration into reliability analysis holds substantial potential to ensure infrastructure safety. Despite the merits of flexible tree structure and formulable expression, random forest (RF) and evolutionary polynomial regression (EPR) cannot contribute to reliability-based design due to absent uncertainty quantification (UQ), thus hampering broader applications. This study introduces quantile regression and variational inference (VI), tailored to RF and EPR for UQ, respectively, and explores their capability in identifying material indices. Specifically, quantile-based RF (QRF) quantifies uncertainty by weighting the distribution of observations in leaf nodes, while VI-based EPR (VIEPR) works by approximating the parametric posterior distribution of coefficients in polynomials. The compression index of clays is taken as an exemplar to develop models, which are compared in terms of accuracy and reliability, and also with deterministic counterparts. The results indicate that QRF outperforms VIEPR, exhibiting higher accuracy and confidence in UQ. In the regions of sparse data, predicted uncertainty becomes larger as errors increase, demonstrating the validity of UQ. The generalization ability of QRF is further verified on a new creep index database. The proposed uncertainty-incorporated modeling approaches are available under diverse preferences and possess significant prospects in broad scientific computing domains.
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spelling doaj-art-73deddd4f7f941cba5a6352d62d96c012025-08-20T02:58:21ZengCambridge University PressData-Centric Engineering2632-67362025-01-01610.1017/dce.2025.5Uncertainty quantification in tree structure and polynomial regression algorithms toward material indices predictionGeng-Fu He0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6779-9676Pin Zhang1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9004-647XZhen-Yu Yin2Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong, Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, ChinaDepartment of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore, SingaporeDepartment of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong, Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, ChinaMachine learning’s integration into reliability analysis holds substantial potential to ensure infrastructure safety. Despite the merits of flexible tree structure and formulable expression, random forest (RF) and evolutionary polynomial regression (EPR) cannot contribute to reliability-based design due to absent uncertainty quantification (UQ), thus hampering broader applications. This study introduces quantile regression and variational inference (VI), tailored to RF and EPR for UQ, respectively, and explores their capability in identifying material indices. Specifically, quantile-based RF (QRF) quantifies uncertainty by weighting the distribution of observations in leaf nodes, while VI-based EPR (VIEPR) works by approximating the parametric posterior distribution of coefficients in polynomials. The compression index of clays is taken as an exemplar to develop models, which are compared in terms of accuracy and reliability, and also with deterministic counterparts. The results indicate that QRF outperforms VIEPR, exhibiting higher accuracy and confidence in UQ. In the regions of sparse data, predicted uncertainty becomes larger as errors increase, demonstrating the validity of UQ. The generalization ability of QRF is further verified on a new creep index database. The proposed uncertainty-incorporated modeling approaches are available under diverse preferences and possess significant prospects in broad scientific computing domains.https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S263267362500005X/type/journal_articleevolutionary polynomial regressionquantilerandom forestuncertainty quantificationvariational inference
spellingShingle Geng-Fu He
Pin Zhang
Zhen-Yu Yin
Uncertainty quantification in tree structure and polynomial regression algorithms toward material indices prediction
Data-Centric Engineering
evolutionary polynomial regression
quantile
random forest
uncertainty quantification
variational inference
title Uncertainty quantification in tree structure and polynomial regression algorithms toward material indices prediction
title_full Uncertainty quantification in tree structure and polynomial regression algorithms toward material indices prediction
title_fullStr Uncertainty quantification in tree structure and polynomial regression algorithms toward material indices prediction
title_full_unstemmed Uncertainty quantification in tree structure and polynomial regression algorithms toward material indices prediction
title_short Uncertainty quantification in tree structure and polynomial regression algorithms toward material indices prediction
title_sort uncertainty quantification in tree structure and polynomial regression algorithms toward material indices prediction
topic evolutionary polynomial regression
quantile
random forest
uncertainty quantification
variational inference
url https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S263267362500005X/type/journal_article
work_keys_str_mv AT gengfuhe uncertaintyquantificationintreestructureandpolynomialregressionalgorithmstowardmaterialindicesprediction
AT pinzhang uncertaintyquantificationintreestructureandpolynomialregressionalgorithmstowardmaterialindicesprediction
AT zhenyuyin uncertaintyquantificationintreestructureandpolynomialregressionalgorithmstowardmaterialindicesprediction