Hierarchical Bayesian site clustering for a geotechnical database

Abstract

This paper presents a new clustering method for sites in a geotechnical database. This clustering method is based on the hierarchical Bayesian site similarity measure (HBSSM) recently proposed by the authors. Utilizing the HBSSM, this study presents a spectral algorithm for clustering geotechnical sites with similar multivariate probability distributions. Using numerical examples, it is shown that the proposed algorithm can produce reasonable clustering results.