Encoding words into Cloud models from interval-valued data via fuzzy statistics and membership function fitting

Urban Flood Resilience Evaluation Based on Heterogeneous Data and Group Decision-Making

In recent years, urban floods have occurred frequently in China. Therefore, there is an urgent need to strengthen urban flood resilience. This paper proposed a hybrid multi-criteria group decision-making method to assess urban flood resilience based on heterogeneous data, group decision-making methodologies, the pressure-state-response model, and social-economic-natural complex ecosystem theory (PSR-SENCE model). A qualitative and quantitative indicator system is formulated using the PSR-SENCE model. Additionally, a new weighting method for indicators, called the synthesis weighting-group analytic hierarchy process (SW-GAHP), is proposed by considering both intrapersonal consistency and interpersonal consistency of decision-makers. Furthermore, an extensional group decision-making technology (EGDMT) based on heterogeneous data is proposed to evaluate qualitative indicators. The flexible parameterized mapping function (FPMF) is introduced for the evaluation of quantitative indicators. The normal cloud model is employed to handle various uncertainties associated with heterogeneous data. The evaluations for Beijing from 2017 to 2021 reveal a consistent annual improvement in urban flood resilience, with a 14.1% increase. Subsequently, optimization recommendations are presented not only for favorable indicators such as regional economic status, drainability, and public transportation service capacity but also for unfavorable indicators like flood risk and population density. This provides a theoretical foundation and a guide for making decisions about the improvement of urban flood resilience. Finally, our proposed method shows superiority and robustness through comparative and sensitivity analyses.

Safety Evaluation of Reinforced Concrete Structures Using Multi-Source Fusion Uncertainty Cloud Inference and Experimental Study

Structural damage detection and safety evaluations have emerged as a core driving force in structural health monitoring (SHM). Focusing on the multi-source monitoring data in sensing systems and the uncertainty caused by initial defects and monitoring errors, in this study, we develop a comprehensive method for evaluating structural safety, named multi-source fusion uncertainty cloud inference (MFUCI), that focuses on characterizing the relationship between condition indexes and structural performance in order to quantify the structural health status. Firstly, based on cloud theory, the cloud numerical characteristics of the condition index cloud drops are used to establish the qualitative rule base. Next, the proposed multi-source fusion generator yields a multi-source joint certainty degree, which is then transformed into cloud drops with certainty degree information. Lastly, a quantitative structural health evaluation is performed through precision processing. This study focuses on the numerical simulation of an RC frame at the structural level and an RC T-beam damage test at the component level, based on the stiffness degradation process. The results show that the proposed method is effective at evaluating the health of components and structures in a quantitative manner. It demonstrates reliability and robustness by incorporating uncertainty information through noise immunity and cross-domain inference, outperforming baseline models such as Bayesian neural network (BNN) in uncertainty estimations and LSTM in point estimations.

A cloud model-based method for passenger flow control at subway stations: A real-world case study

In the condition of large passenger flow, subway station managers take measures of passenger flow control organization for reducing high safety operation risks at subway stations. The volume of passenger flow in urban railway network operation continues to increase and the Congestion of passenger flow is very high. Passenger flow control measures can greatly give birth to the pressure of transportation and ensure an urban rail transit system’s safe operation. In this paper, we develop a cloud model-based method for passenger flow control, which extends the four-level risk-control grade of a large passenger flow at facilities by considering its fuzzy and stochastic characteristics. Then, an efficient passenger flow control strategy for subway stations is made, where the control time and locations are simultaneously determined. Finally, a station in the Beijing subway is studied to test the validity of the proposed approach. The results show that the time of maximum queuing length is much shorter and the density of passenger flow is lower than existing methods in practice. With the in-depth study of complex network controllability, many studies have applied to control judgment and real network optimization. This paper analyzes the cloud-model-based method for passenger flow control at subway stations and therefore a new method can be incorporated for developing and optimizing control strategies. A few researchers have attempted to find the solution to the problem of crowding risk classification and the passenger flow control strategy. The focus of some studies simultaneously solves the passenger flow control with multiple stations.

An Extended VIKOR Method Based on q-Rung Orthopair Shadowed Set and Its Application to Multi-Attribute Decision Making

In the multi-attribute decision making (MADM) process, the attribute values are sometimes provided by experts or the public in the form of words. To model the linguistic evaluation more accurately, this paper proposes the q-rung orthopair shadowed set (q-ROSS) to represent attribute values and extends the VIKOR (VIsekriterijumska optimizacija i KOmpromisno Resenje) method to solve MADM problems in the q-ROSS context. First, we propose the q-ROSS to express evaluation information. Some basic operation rules and distance measures are investigated accordingly. When the amount of data is large, the left and right endpoints of the collected interval numbers will obey symmetric normal distribution. Secondly, based on the normal distribution assumption, the collected data intervals are mapped to shadowed sets through a data processing approach. Furthermore, we extend the VIKOR model to tackle the MADM problem where the evaluation values are expressed by q-rung orthopair shadowed numbers. A location selection problem verifies the practicability of our method, and the effectiveness and superiority of the presented approach are reflected through comparative analysis.

A Normal Cloud Model-Based Method for Risk Assessment of Water Inrush and Its Application in a Super-Long Tunnel Constructed by a Tunnel Boring Machine in the Arid Area of Northwest China

Tunnel water inrush is complex, fuzzy, and random, and it is affected by many factors, such as hydrology, geology, and construction. However, few papers have considered the impact of dynamic monitoring on water inrush in previous research. In this study, considering geological, hydrological, and construction factors, as well as dynamic monitoring, a new multi-index evaluation method is proposed to analyze the risk of tunnel water inrush based on the normal cloud model. A new weight algorithm combining analytic hierarchy process and entropy method is used to calculate the index weight. The certainty degree of each evaluation index belonging to the corresponding cloud can be obtained by the cloud model theory. The final level of tunnel water inrush is determined via the synthetic certainty degree. The proposed method is applied to analyze the risk of water inrush in the SS (Shuang-san) tunnel constructed by a tunnel boring machine in the arid area of Northwest China. The evaluation results are not only basically identical to the results calculated by the ideal point and gray relation projection methods, but also agree well with the actual excavation results. This demonstrates that this new risk assessment method of water inrush has high accuracy and feasibility. Simultaneously, it also provides a new research idea to analyze the probability of tunnel water inrush and can provide a reference for related projects.

A New Approach to Realizing the Soft-and Operation in Cloud Model-Based Control

Considering fuzziness, randomness, and the association between them, cloud model-based control is a new way to address uncertainty in the inference system. Similar to fuzzy control theory, this method includes an important step of dealing with the logic concept “and”, which is defined as the operation of soft-and between several antecedents and has not been scientifically solved in the current literatures. The traditional method of realizing soft-and is to use multi-dimensional cloud model theory, which lacks a theoretical basis. Based on the fuzzy and random theory, this paper proposes a novel approach using numeric simulation to calculate the soft-and in the cloud control system. In this method, the theory to determine the distribution of the minimum value between two random variables is applied. Compared with the traditional method, the considered approach is more reliable and reasonable, and its result is also in accordance with the standard fuzzy inference system.

A Comparative Investigation of Type-2 Fuzzy Sets, Nonstationary Fuzzy Sets and Cloud Models

Since Zadeh introduced fuzzy sets, a lot of extensions of this concept have been proposed, such as type-2 fuzzy sets, nonstationary fuzzy sets, and cloud models, to represent higher levels of uncertainty. This paper provides a comparative investigation of type-2 fuzzy sets, nonstationary fuzzy sets, and cloud models. Type-2 fuzzy sets study the fuzziness of the membership function (MF) using primary MF and secondary MF based on analytic mathematical methods; nonstationary fuzzy sets study the randomness of the MF using primary MF and variation function based on type-1 fuzzy sets theory; cloud models study the randomness of the distribution of samples in the universe and generate random membership grades (MGs) using two random variables based on probability and statistic mathematical methods. They all concentrate on dealing with the uncertainty of the MF or the MG which type-1 fuzzy sets do not consider, and thus have many similarities. Moreover, we find out that, the same qualitative concept “moderate amount” can be represented by an interval type-2 fuzzy set, a nonstationary fuzzy set or a normal cloud model, respectively. Then, we propose a unified mathematical expression for the interval type-2 fuzzy set, nonstationary fuzzy set and normal cloud model. On the other hand, we also find out that, the theory fundament and underlying motivations of these models are quite different. Therefore, We summarize detailed comparisons of distinctive properties of type-2 fuzzy sets, nonstationary fuzzy sets, and cloud models. Further, we study their diverse characteristics of distributions of MGs across vertical slices. The comparative investigation shows that these models are complementary to describe the uncertainty from different points of view. Thus, this paper provides a fundamental contribution and makes a basic reference for knowledge representation and other applications with uncertainty.