Optimising Venturi flume oxygen transfer efficiency using uncertainty-aware decision trees

This study optimizes standard oxygen transfer efficiency (SOTE) in Venturi flumes investigating the impact of key parameters such as discharge per unit width (<i>q</i>), throat width (<i>W</i>), throat length (<i>F</i>), upstream entrance width (<i>E</i>), and gauge readings (<i>H_a</i> and <i>H_b</i>). To achieve this, a comprehensive experimental dataset was analyzed using multiple linear regression (MLR), multiple nonlinear regression (MNLR), gradient boosting machine (GBM), extreme gradient boosting (XRT), random forest (RF), M5 (pruned and unpruned), random tree (RT), and reduced error pruning (REP). Model performance was evaluated based on key metrics: correlation coefficient (CC), root mean square error (RMSE), and mean absolute error (MAE). Among the proposed models, M5_Unprun emerged as the top performer, exhibiting the highest CC (0.9455), the lowest RMSE (0.1918), and the lowest MAE (0.0030). GBM followed closely with a CC value of 0.9372, an RMSE value of 0.2067, and an MAE value of 0.0006. Uncertainty analysis further solidified the superior performance of M5_Unpruned (0.7522) and GBM (0.8055), with narrower prediction bands compared to other models, including MLR, which exhibited the widest band (1.4320). One-way analysis of variance confirmed the reliability and robustness of the proposed models. Sensitivity, correlation, and SHapley Additive exPlanations analyses identified <i>W</i> and <i>H_b</i> as the most influencing factors.