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Predicting the production rate of diamond wire saws using multiple nonlinear
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Predicting the production rate of diamond wire saws

using multiple nonlinear regression analysis
a a b a c
Golsa Sadegheslam , Reza Mikaeil , Reza Rooki , Saleh Ghadernejad & Mohammad Ataei
a
Department of Mining and Metallurgical Engineering, Urmia University of Technology,
Urmia, Iran
b
Faculty of Mining Engineering, Birjand University of Technology, Birjand, Iran
c
Faculty of Mining, Petroleum and Geophysics, Shahrood University of Technology,
Shahrood, Iran
Published online: 19 Nov 2013.

To cite this article: Golsa Sadegheslam, Reza Mikaeil, Reza Rooki, Saleh Ghadernejad & Mohammad Ataei , Geosystem
Engineering (2013): Predicting the production rate of diamond wire saws using multiple nonlinear regression analysis,
Geosystem Engineering, DOI: 10.1080/12269328.2013.856276

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 Geosystem Engineering, 2013
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/12269328.2013.856276

Predicting the production rate of diamond wire saws using multiple nonlinear regression analysis
Golsa Sadegheslama*, Reza Mikaeila, Reza Rookib, Saleh Ghadernejada and Mohammad Ataeic
a
Department of Mining and Metallurgical Engineering, Urmia University of Technology, Urmia, Iran; bFaculty of Mining Engineering,
Birjand University of Technology, Birjand, Iran; cFaculty of Mining, Petroleum and Geophysics, Shahrood University of Technology,
Shahrood, Iran
(Received 28 June 2013; accepted 13 October 2013)

In this paper, the prediction of production rate of diamond wire saws was performed. Performance measurements of
diamond wire saws were conducted on 14 different carbonate rocks in mines located in Iran. Rock samples were collected
from the mines for laboratory tests. Elasticity modulus, quartz content, and uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) were
determined in the laboratory. Production values were correlated with the corresponding elasticity modulus, quartz content,
and UCS. The sawing speed and rock properties were evaluated using multiple nonlinear regression analysis, and the
developed model was validated by statistical tests and actual data of sawing speed for four new mines. It was concluded that
the sawing speed of carbonate rocks using diamond wire saws can reliably be estimated using the developed model.
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Keywords: sawability; diamond wire saw; carbonate rocks; statistical analysis; neural network

1. Introduction the most important factors that require consideration in

Diamond wire saw has been extensively used in stone
processing plant. The diamond wire saw is one of the most
important tools used in the stone quarries. Briefly, in the
diamond wire cutting method, first, holes that are vertical,
horizontal, and perpendicular to each other are drilled
through the block. Then, the diamond wire is threaded
through these holes and mounted around the drive wheel of
the diamond wire cutting machine and the two ends of the
wire are clamped together. The diamond wire is rotated via
the movement of a drive wheel. The tension and rotation
force required for cutting is provided by the movement of
the diamond wire cutting machine away from the cut
surface on the rail. Water is supplied during the diamond
wire cutting operation both as a coolant and as a means of
removing waste particles. The diamond wire is simply a
steel cable on which small beads bonded with diamond
abrasive are mounted at regular intervals with spacing
material placed between the beads (Özc elik & Kulaksız,
2000). Schematic presentation of a diamond wire-cutting
layout and cross section of diamond bead are illustrated in
Figure 1.
There have been some studies on the sawing
performance of diamond wire saws. Some researchers
have attempted to investigate the effect of type of diamond
saw, the saw operating parameters, and sawn rock
properties on diamond wire performance. Some of these
studies are listed in Table 1.
No study has been found relating to the influence of
major characteristics of different rock types on the
performance of diamond wire saw. It is obvious that one of
predicting the production rate of diamond wire is the
characteristics of the sawn rock. In this study, the effects of
the some major rock properties on the performance of the
diamond wire saw are examined and the relation between
the production rates and rock properties is investigated
using multi-variable regression analysis and neural
networks. These are methods for evaluating the effects
of several factors concurrently. These approaches are
considered to be new in the diamond wire saw cutting
study.
2. Sawing mechanism
Chip formation can be defined as the destruction of a
work-piece material using diamond circular saw. The
process is a grinding process; however, in general, the term
“sawing” is commonly used. The saw rotates about the
saw center with an angular speed cutting into the work-
piece at a constant traverse rate. The diamond particles on
the segment surface remove the material through
scratching and cracking the work-piece surface. During
these processes, a cut is formed in two mechanisms. This is
given in Figure 2.
In front of a grain that is engaged in the process,
stresses are affected by tangential forces. Swarf is
processed by tensile and compressive stresses. This
mechanism is called primary chip formation. The swarf
is forced out through proves in front and beside the grain.
It is usually small in size but could be abrasive. While the
rock shows elastic characteristic up to its ultimate stress, it

*Corresponding author. Email: sadegheslam.uut@gmail.com

q 2013 Taylor & Francis
 2 G. Sadegheslam et al.

Figure 1. Schematic presentation of a diamond wire-cutting layout and cross section of a diamond bead.

Table 1. Some studies in the field of diamond wire saw.

Title of work Researchers

Diamond bead wear Özc elik (1999), Özc elik and Bayram (2004), Özc elik, Kulaksız, and Çetin (2002),
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Özc elik (2005)

Motor power and wire speed
Structure of wire and cutting geometry
Marble block dimension
Structure of the diamond wire and bead
Computer simulation of diamond wire cutting
Cutting rate
Hawkins et al. (1990) and Wright (1992)
Özc elik (1999)
Berry (1989) and Hallez (1971)
Özc elik (1999), Özc elik et al. (2002), Cai and Mancini (1989), Cappuzi (1989),
Cook and Smith (1993), Biasco (1993)
Bortolussi (1990, 1994)
Özc elik and Kulaksız (2000), Özc elik (2005), Özc elik (2007), Mikaeil, Ataei, and
Hoseinie (2008), Ataei, Mikaiel, Sereshki, and Ghaysari (2011)

is necessary for cutting to reach a certain minimum 3. Field studies

grinding thickness. The rock cut is deformed by the
compressive stress carried below the diamond. As the load
is removed, an elastic revision leads to critical tensile
stress, which causes brittle fracture. This process affected
by tensile stresses is described as secondary chip
formation. The swarf is removed away by the coolant
fluid (Ersoy, Buyuksagis, & Atici, 2005).
During the field studies, 14 marble quarries in Isfahan,
Kordestan, and Yazd provinces of Iran were visited and
the sawing performances of diamond wire saws were
measured on their different carbonate rocks. In Iranian
stone mines, usually very similar machines are used.
Therefore, in the studied quarries, many technical features
of wire saw machines were nearly similar. In this paper,
properties of wire saw machine are considered to be
constant and were not used in prediction model.
Characteristics of wire saw machines which were usually
used in Iranian stone mines are presented in Table 2.

Figure 2. Mechanical interaction between saw and stone during
sawing process (Tonshoff, Hillmann-Apmann, & Asche, 2002).
Note: 1 – friction between swarf and matrix; 2 – matrix erosion
by swarf and chip; 3 – friction between stone and grain; 4 –
plastic deformation; 5 – elastic deformation; and 6 – primary
chipping zone.
4. Laboratory studies
Sawing cost is controlled mainly by the sawing rate, which
is heavily influenced by the performance of the saw. A
range of factors affects the performance characteristics of
the saws. Factors that affect cutting efficiency in the
diamond wire cutting method are given in Table 3 (Özc elik,
1999). The effective rock parameters on the performance of
diamond wire saw can be classified into three main groups:
(a) physical and mechanical parameters, (b) abrasive
characteristics, and (c) elasticity and plasticity character-
istics. For assessing of rock sawability and prediction of
production rate, using some major rock properties is very
 Geosystem Engineering 3

Table 2. Operational parameters of wire saw machine. weathering, texture, and matrix type. The UCS tests were
carried out on testing machine with a capacity of 2000 kN
Parameter Description
at a loading rate of 1 kN/s. Cylindrical specimens NX in
Main motor power (kW) 45 diameter with a length to diameter ratio of 2.5:1 were used.
Length of wire (m) 65 – 80
Linear speed (m/s) 30 – 35
Rotator diameter (cm) 60
Beads per meter 33 – 36 4.2. Equivalent quartz content
Beads type Special for soft rocks Quartz content is one of the most important factors to
evaluate the abrasiveness and hardness of rock. A typical
thin section belonging to each rock type was prepared for
petrographic analyses and the determination of textural
essential. But there is an important question; what are the rock characteristics. Primary and secondary minerals were
most important parameters? In this study, for prediction of identified. It is clear that tool wear and rate reduction are
wire saw’s production rate, one parameter from each predominantly a result of the mineral content harder than
mentioned family was selected. Uniaxial compressive steel (Mohs hardness ca. 5.5), especially quartz (Mohs
strength (UCS) as the most important physical and hardness of 7). To include all minerals of a rock sample,
mechanical properties of rocks and equivalent quartz the equivalent quartz content has been determined in thin
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content as the most important abrasivity property and
elasticity modulus as the most important elasticity property
have been selected and used in regression analyses
simultaneously. Rock blocks were collected from the
mines for laboratory tests. An attempt was made to collect
rock samples that were large enough to obtain all of the test
specimens of a given rock type from the same piece. Each
block sample was inspected for macroscopic defects so that
sections by modal analysis – meaning the entire mineral
content referring to the abrasiveness or hardness of quartz
(Equation (1)). Therefore, each mineral amount is
multiplied with its relative Rosiwal abrasiveness to quartz
(with quartz being 100) (Thuro, 1997).
X
n

it would provide test specimens free from fractures, equ ¼ A i £ Ri ; ð1Þ

partings, or alteration zones. Then, standard test samples
were prepared from these block samples, and rock
properties were conducted following the suggested
procedures by the ISRM standards (ISRM, 1981).
i¼1
where A is the mineral amount (%), R is Rosiwal
abrasiveness (%), and n is the number of minerals.

4.1. Uniaxial compressive strength

UCS is one of the most important engineering properties of
rocks. Rock material strength is used as an important
parameter in many rock mass classification systems.
Factors that influence the UCS of rocks are the constitutive
minerals and their spatial positions, weathering or
alteration rate, micro-cracks and internal fractures,
density, and porosity. Therefore, UCS test can be
considered as representative of rock strength, density,
4.3. Elasticity modulus
According to rock behavior during the fracture process,
especially in sawing, the way that rocks reach the failure
point has a great influence on sawability. The best scale for
rock elasticity is elasticity modulus. Based on ISRM
suggested methods (ISRM, 1981), the tangent Young’s
modulus at a stress level equal to 50% of the ultimate UCS
is used in this research.

Table 3. Factors affecting cutting efficiency in the diamond wire saw method (Özc elik, 1999).

Partially controlled or controlled parameters

Non-controlled parameters
Related to rock characteristics Properties of cutting tools and equipment Working conditions
Hardness Machine power Technical personnel
Strength Machine position on either vertical or horizontal cutting Vibration of machine
Water content Number of beads per meter
Degree of alteration Cutting angle between wire and horizontal level
Discontinuities Amount of cutting area with respect to angle variation
Mineralogical properties Wire speed
Textural characteristics Amount of water used
Bead structure
Dimensions of block
 4 G. Sadegheslam et al.

The results of performance studies (recorded rates) and 12

measured UCS and equivalent quartz content of rocks are 10
y = –3.2904Ln(x) + 0.1551
2
R = 0.78
summarized in Table 4.

Production (m2/h)
8

5. Statistical analysis 4

5.1. Simple regression analysis 2

Performance results and rock properties such as quartz 0

content, elasticity modulus, and UCS were analyzed using 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7
Quartz content (Vol %)
the method of least squares regression. Production values
were correlated with the corresponding rock property Figure 3. Production versus quartz content.
values. Linear, logarithmic, exponential, and power curve
fitting approximations were tried and the best approxi-
mation equation with the highest correlation coefficient was
12
determined for each regression. The equations are as follow: y =15.21e–0.3914x
10 R2 = 0.6024

Production (m2/h)
P ¼ 23:2904LnðQcÞ þ 0:1551; R ¼ 0:78;
2
ð2Þ
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8
20:3914E
P ¼ 15:21e ; R ¼ 0:60;
2
ð3Þ 6

4
P ¼ 210:567LnðUCSÞ þ 75:648; R 2 ¼ 0:53; ð4Þ
2
2
where P is the production (m /h), Qc is the quartz content 0
(%), E is the elasticity modulus (GPa), and UCS is the 0 10000 20000 30000 40000 50000 60000
uniaxial compressive strength (MPa). There is a strong Elasticity modulus (MPa)
correlation between quartz content, elasticity modulus, and
Figure 4. Production versus elasticity modulus.
production values (Figures 3 and 4). The correlation
between production and UCS values is weaker than two
out by using multiple regression methods. Multiple
other parameters relatively (Figure 5).
regression methods can be divided into two types as
linear and nonlinear methods. In this study, the twin-
logarithmic model, which is the one of the nonlinear
5.2 Multiple nonlinear regression analysis
methods, was used. The equation representing the model
Multiple nonlinear regression (MnLR) analysis was can be written in the following form:
performed with the expectation of obtaining more
significant relations than that of the simple regression. Y ¼ aX b11 X b22 · · ·X bnn ; ð5Þ
Because the sawability of rocks is affected by many
factors, sawability cannot be analyzed by using simple where Y is the predicted value corresponding to the
regression models. Therefore, the analysis must be carried dependent variables, a is the intercept, X1, X2, Xn are the

Table 4. The results of performance studies and laboratory tests.

Mine name and location Production (m2/h) Qc (%) E (GPa) UCS (MPa) Wac (%) LA (%)
Godarsorkh/Esfahan 1.28 0.4 5.45 96 0.34 34.5
Hamzadeh/Esfahan 6 0.2 2 93.8 0.39 31.1
Joshghan qali/Esfahan 5 0.15 2.5 97.5 0.22 29.9
Laybid/Esfahan 7 0.15 2.5 87.1 0.5 42.2
Kandab/Esfahan 3 0.63 2.3 94.2 0.34 26.6
Jajarmi/Esfahan 1.5 0.45 5.2 96.9 0.36 34.5
Senesar/Kordestan 2.4 0.45 3 96.5 0.45 27.4
Shanoreh/Kordestan 10 0.075 2.3 59.0 0.32 27.4
Vihaje/Kordestan 10 0.05 2 59.15 0.26 33.3
Poshtbaskoli/Kordestan 6 0.25 3.7 64.0 0.33 35.6
Crysal/Kordestan 3.6 0.45 4 68.0 0.26 27.5
Sorti/Yazd 3.7 0.512 3.7 81.7 0.75 20
Baiatneyriz/Yazd 3.7 0.38 4.5 95.4 0.25 47
Angorakdehbid/Yazd 2.5 0.22 5.2 84.6 0.28 28

12
10
Production (m2/h)
8
6
4 t-value with tabulated t-value using the null hypothesis. If
2
0 If the computed t-value is less than the tabulated t-value,
40 50 60 70
Uniaxial compression strength (MPa)
Figure 5. Production versus uniaxial compression strength.
independent variables, and b1, b2, bn are the regression
coefficients of X1, X2, Xn.
Taking logarithms of both sides of Equation (5)
converts the model into linear form as follow:
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log Y ¼ log a þ b1 log X 1 þ b2 log X 2 þ · · ·
þ bn log X n :
Equation (6) can be written as the linear regression
function:
F ¼ c þ d1 Z 1 þ d2 Z 2 þ · · · þ dn Z n :
Regression analysis was performed using the data in
Table 4. The production was considered as the dependent
variable. Rock properties were considered as the indepen-
dent variables. Regression analysis was carried out using a
computing package SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social
Sciences). First, stepwise regression method was used to
obtain the best model for estimating sawability. The best
model developed is given as follow:
102:772
P¼
Qc0:272 £ E 0:712 £ UCS1:023
where P is the production (m2/h), Qc is the quartz content
(%), E is the elasticity modulus (GPa), and UCS is the
uniaxial compressive strength (MPa).
Also, using multiple linear regression (MLR) approach
in SPSS software, the estimated regression relationship for
production rate is given as follow:
P ¼ 26:736 £ Qc 2 1:007 £ E 2 0:075 £ UCS
þ 16:6:
5.3. Validation of models
Validation of the MnLR and MLR models was carried out
by considering the determination coefficient, the t-test,
F-test, and the plot of observed production versus
estimated production. The statistical results of the models
Geosystem Engineering 5
are given in Table 5. The determination coefficient (R 2) of
y = –10.567Ln(x) + 51.318 the models is higher than 0.8. This value is good, but it does
R2 = 0.5253 not necessarily identify the valid models. The significance
of R 2 value can be determined by the t-test, assuming that
both variables are normally distributed and the obser-
vations are chosen randomly. The test compares computed
the computed t-value is greater than tabulated t-value, the
null hypothesis is rejected. This means that R is significant.
80 90 100 110 120
the null hypothesis is not rejected. In this case, R is not
significant. Since a 90% confidence level was chosen in this
test, a corresponding critical t-value 1.363 for the model
was obtained. As it is seen in Table 5, the computed t-
values are greater than tabulated t-values for the best
models, suggesting that the models are valid. To test the
significance of the regressions, analysis of variance was
employed. This test follows an F-distribution for the
model. In this test, a 99% level of confidence was chosen. If
the computed F-value is greater than the tabulated F-value,
ð6Þ the null hypothesis is rejected that there is a real relation
between dependent and independent variables. Since the
computed F-value is greater than the tabulated F-value for
the models, the null hypothesis is rejected. Therefore, it is
concluded that the models are valid.
ð7Þ The other test is performed in order to validate MnLR
and MLR models. The main aim of this section is to evaluate
the predictive power of the models. To achieve this aim, four
new Marble mines in Yazd areas were visited and the
production rate was measured. The results of the laboratory
tests and production rate for these mines are given in Table 6.
The results show that the MnLR model has high ability
compared to MLR model according to the nonlinear relation
between the rate of production and the affected parameters.
The estimated production values versus the observed
production values for test data using MnLR and MLR
; ð8Þ models are shown in Figures 6 and 7.
The estimated and observed production values using
MnLR and MLR models for all data are given in Table 7.
The estimated production values for these data were plotted
against the observed production values and are shown in
Figures 8 and 9. The error in the estimated value is
represented by the distance that each data point plots from
the 1:1 diagonal line. A point lying on the line indicates an
exact estimation. In the plots for models, the points (except
for one point that is indicated in Figure 9) are scattered
uniformly about the diagonal line, suggesting that the
ð9Þ models are good. It was concluded that the sawing speed of
carbonate rocks using diamond wire saws can reliably be
estimated using the developed models.
6. Artificial neural networks
Artificial neural networks (ANN) can be broadly defined
as information processing representation of the biological
 6 G. Sadegheslam et al.

coefficient (R 2 adj)
neural networks. ANN has gained an increasing popularity

determination
in different fields of engineering in the past few decades,

Adjusted
because of their capability of extracting complex and

0.798

0.798
nonlinear relationships. Their mechanism is based on the
following assumptions (Hagan, Demuth, & Beale, 1996):
(1) Information processing occurs in many simple
elements that are called neurons (processing
coefficient (R 2)

elements).
Determination

(2) Signals are passed between neurons over connec-

0.84

0.94
tion links.
(3) Each connection link has an associated weight,
which, in a typical neural network, multiplies the
signal being transmitted.
(4) Each neuron applies an activation function
Tabulated
F-ratio

(usually nonlinear) to its net input to determine

7.21

7.21

its output signal.

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There are many different types of neural network

architectures and algorithms available. In this study, a
F-ratio

52.198
15.68

generalized regression neural network (GRNN) is used.

6.1. The generalized regression neural network

Tabulated
t-value
1.363

1.363

GRNN is Donald Specht’s term for a neural network

invented by him in 1990 (Specht, 1991). The GRNN is a
memory-based network that provides estimates of
continuous variables and converges to the underlying
2 1.921
2 2.704
2 2.136

2 4.645
2 5.313
2 4.572
12.621
t-value
2.76

regression surface. GRNNs are based on the estimation of

probability density functions, feature fast training times,
and can model nonlinear functions. The GRNN is a one-
pass learning algorithm with a highly parallel structure. It
Standard error
of estimate

is that, even with sparse data in a multidimensional

measurement space, the algorithm provides smooth
0.124

0.787

transitions from one observed value to another. The

algorithmic form can be used for any regression problem
in which an assumption of linearity is not justified. GRNN
can be thought as a normalized radial basis functions
Standard

1.004
0.142
0.263
0.479
1.315

0.189
0.017
error

1.45

(RBF) network in which there is a hidden unit centered at

every training case. These RBF units are usually
probability density functions such as the Gaussian. The
only weights that need to be learned are the widths of the
Coefficient
2.772
2 0.272
2 0.712
2 1.023

2 6.736
2 1.007
2 0.075

RBF units. These widths are called “smoothing par-

16.6

ameters.” The main drawback of GRNN is that it suffers

Statistical results of models.

badly from the curse of dimensionality. GRNN cannot

ignore irrelevant inputs without major modifications to the
basic algorithm. So GRNN is not likely to be the top
Independent
variables

choice if there are more than five or six no redundant

Constant

Constant

inputs.
UCS

UCS
Qc

Qc

The regression of a dependent variable, Y, on an

E

independent variable, X, is the computation of the most

probable value of Y for each value of X based on a
Equation (8)

Equation (9)

finite number of possibly noisy measurements of X and the

Table 5.

associated values of Y. The variables X and Y are usually

Model

vectors. In order to implement system identification, it is

usually necessary to assume some functional form. In the
 Geosystem Engineering 7

Table 6. The results of laboratory tests and production rate for test data.

Estimated production
(m2/h)
Mine name and location P (m2/h) Qc (%) E (GPa) UCS (MPa) MnLR MLR
Chahmorghidehbid/Yazd 2.7 0.932 5.2 84.0 2 21.2
Hasanabaddehbid/Yazd 3 0.1 4.2 114.3 3.13 3.12
Sobheneyriz/Yazd 4.2 0.61 2.4 80.0 4.1 4.07
Vahdatneyriz/Yazd 3.75 0.632 2.4 80.0 4.06 3.93

functional form. A Euclidean distance (D2i ) is estimated

5
between an input vector and the weights, which are then
rescaled by the spreading factor. The radial basis output is
Estimated production (m2/h)

4 then the exponential of the negatively weighted distance.

The GRNN equation is:
3
D2i ¼ ðX 2 X i ÞT ðX 2 X i Þ; ð10Þ
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2
Pn

i¼1 Y i exp 2ðDi =2s Þ
2 2
YðXÞ ¼ Pn
 : ð11Þ
i¼1 exp 2ðDi =2s Þ
1 2 2

0 The estimate Y(X) can be visualized as a weighted

0 1 2 3 4 5 average of all of the observed values, Yi, where each
Observed production (m2/h) observed value is weighted exponentially according to its
Euclidian distance from X. Y(X) is simply the sum of
Figure 6. The estimated production values versus the observed
Gaussian distributions centered at each training sample.
production values for test data (MnLR).
However, the sum is not limited to being Gaussian. In this
theory, s is the smoothing factor, and optimum smoothing
factor is determined after several runs according to the
5 mean squared error of the estimate, which must be kept at
minimum. This process is referred to as the training of the
4 network. If a number of iterations pass with no
improvement in the mean squared error, that smoothing
Estimated production (m2/h)

3 factor is determined as the optimum one for that data-set.

2
1
0 output values.
0 1
–1
–2
Observed production (m2/h)
Figure 7. The estimated production values versus the observed
production values for test data (MLR).
case of linear regression, for example, the output Y is
assumed to be a linear function of the input, and the
unknown parameters, ai, are linear coefficients.
The procedure presented in Donald F. Specht’s article
(Specht, 1991) does not need to assume a specific
In the production phase, that smoothing factor is applied to
data-sets that the network has not seen before. While
applying the network to a new set of data, increasing the
smoothing factor would result in decreasing the range of
2 3 4 5 The architecture for the GRNN is shown Figure 10. It
is similar to the radial basis network, has a radial basis
layer and a special linear layer but has a slightly different
second layer.
The nprod box shown in Figure 10 (code function
normprod) produces S2 elements in vector n2. Each
element is the dot product of a row of LW2,1 and the input
vector a1, all normalized by the sum of the elements of a1.
The first layer is just like that for newrbe networks. It has
as many neurons as there are input/target vectors in P.
Specifically, the first layer weights are set to P0. The bias b1
is set to a column vector of 0.8326/SPREAD. The user
chooses SPREAD; the distance an input vector must be
from a neuron’s weight vector to be 0.5.
 8 G. Sadegheslam et al.

Table 7. The estimated and observed production values for all data.

Estimated production (m2/h)

Mine name and location Observed production (m2/h) MnLR MLR
Godarsorkh/Esfahan 1.28 2.13 1.22
Hamzadeh/Esfahan 6 5.37 6.2
Joshghan qali/Esfahan 5 4.76 5.76
Laybid/Esfahan 7 5.35 6.54
Kandab/Esfahan 3 3.54 2.98
Jajarmi/Esfahan 1.5 2.11 1.06
Senesar/Kordestan 2.4 3.14 3.31
Shanoreh/Kordestan 10 10.2 9.35
Vihaje/Kordestan 10 12.6 9.81
Poshtbaskoli/Kordestan 6 4.82 6.39
Crysal/kordestan 3.6 3.66 4.44
Sorti/Yazd 3.7 3.09 3.3
Baiatneyriz/Yazd 3.7 2.49 2.35
Angorakdehbid/Yazd 2.5 2.95 3.54
Chahmorghidehbid/Yazd 2.7 2 21.2
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Hasanabaddehbid/Yazd 3 3.13 3.12

Sobheneyriz/Yazd 4.2 4.1 4.07
Vahdatneyriz/Yazd 3.75 4.06 3.93

14 14

12
12
Estimated production (m2/h)

Estimated production (m2/h)

10
10
8
8
6
6
4
4
2 Outlier
2
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 –2
Observed production (m2/h) Observed production (m2/h)

Figure 8. The estimated production values versus the observed Figure 9. The estimated production values versus the observed
production values (MnLR). production values (MLR).

6.2. Prediction of production rate using GRNN correlation coefficient and error between real
In this work, the inputs are Quartz content, elasticity value and prediction value in training data-set and
modulus, and compression strength, and the output is the test data-set. The results are given in Table 8. In
production rate. To predict the production rate, a GRNN this table, R is the correlation coefficient between
was designed in the MATLAB environment that this observed value and predicted value in the train
network has three layers (input, hidden, and output layer). data and test data. E is average relative error that is
The number of neurons in the hidden layer are equal with obtained as Equation (12):
number of training example. For achievement of the
optimum structure, the below steps were made:
(1) Scaling data (inputs and output) between the range 1X n
jti 2 yi j
E¼ ; ð12Þ
of 2 1 and 1 and selecting the number of train (14 n i¼1 ti
no.) and test data (4 no.).
(2) Training the network by different smooth factors where t is observed value, y is predicted value, and n is
to gain the optimum smooth factor according to number of samples in train data or test data.
 Geosystem Engineering 9

network in prediction. Therefore, designed network can

products production rate with well correlation for new data.
Table 9 compares the results of ANN, MnLR, and
MLR for train and test data. It is well illustrated in Table 9
that the ANN method has high capability in prediction
with respect to statistical models in test data.

Figure 10. Architecture of GRNN (Demuth and Beale, 2002).
Note: R, no. of elements in input vector; Q, no. of neurons in layer
1; Q, no. of neurons in layer 2; Q, no. of input/target pairs. a1i is
ith element of a1 where IW1,1 is a vector made of the ith row of
IW1,1.
According to Table 8, the optimum smooth factor (SF)
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7. Conclusions
Diamond wire saws are one of the most important
machines used in the stone processing plants. Performance
prediction of these saws is important in the cost estimation
and the planning of the plants. A correct estimation of
sawability helps to make the planning of the stone sawing
projects more efficient. The prediction sawing perform-
ance of diamond wire saw is a new research for
determination sawability of carbonate rocks. In this

was selected 0.66. This network has three layers: input
layer with 3 neurons, hidden layer with 14 neurons, and
out put layer with 1 neuron. By this smooth factor, the slab
production was predicted in the train and test data-set. For
compression of predicted value and real value in train
data-set and test data-set, the correlation coefficient of two
sets are given in Figures 11 and 12.
The results show that the correlation coefficients in train
data and test data-set are 0.97 and 0.93, respectively. Notice
that the network did not has see the test data-set in the
training step. These results show high ability of neural
study, the possibility of estimating sawability of carbonate
rocks using multiple nonlinear and linear regression
analysis and general regression neural network was
investigated. For this purpose, performance measurement
of diamond wire saws and rock mechanics tests on rock
samples were carried out. Rock quartz content, elasticity
modulus, and UCS are suggested for the estimation of the
sawability of carbonate rocks. Then, regression analysis
was carried out and stepwise regression method was used
to obtain the best model for estimating sawability. To
check the validity of the derived model and GRNN model,

Table 8. Correlation coefficient values and means relative error with different smooth factors in train and test data-set.

Smooth factor (SF) R (train data) R (test data) E (train data) E (test data)
0.12 1 0.409 0.004 0.291
0.15 1 0.409 0.007 0.291
0.18 1 0.407 0.011 0.290
0.21 0.999 0.403 0.018 0.288
0.24 0.998 0.397 0.030 0.282
0.27 0.996 0.392 0.047 0.273
0.30 0.994 0.395 0.065 0.259
0.33 0.991 0.413 0.085 0.243
0.36 0.988 0.451 0.103 0.224
0.39 0.985 0.509 0.120 0.204
0.42 0.982 0.583 0.134 0.184
0.45 0.980 0.663 0.146 0.163
0.48 0.978 0.739 0.158 0.143
0.51 0.976 0.802 0.169 0.124
0.54 0.975 0.849 0.179 0.106
0.57 0.974 0.883 0.188 0.089
0.60 0.973 0.907 0.198 0.073
0.63 0.973 0.922 0.209 0.065
0.66 0.972 0.933 0.220 0.064
0.69 0.972 0.940 0.232 0.063
0.72 0.972 0.945 0.244 0.063
0.75 0.971 0.949 0.256 0.067
0.78 0.971 0.951 0.268 0.075
0.81 0.971 0.952 0.280 0.082
0.84 0.970 0.953 0.291 0.089
 10 G. Sadegheslam et al.

concluded that the sawing speed of carbonate rocks using

10.00 diamond wire saws can reliably be estimated using the
Estimated production (m2/h)
developed model and network.
8.00

Acknowledgements
6.00
The comments received from and the enlightening discussions
4.00 with our anonymous reviewers improved the paper and are
appreciated.
2.00
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