• Computers and Concrete
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.225-236
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• 2022

In this article, Multi-Gene Genetic Programming (MGGP) is proposed for the estimation of the compressive strength of concrete. MGGP is known to be a powerful algorithm able to find a relationship between certain input space features and a desired output vector. With respect to most conventional machine learning algorithms, which are often used as "black boxes" that do not provide a mathematical formulation of the output-input relationship, MGGP is able to identify a closed-form formula for the input-output relationship. In the study presented in this article, MGPP was used to predict the compressive strength of plain concrete, concrete with fly ash, and concrete with furnace slag. A formula was extracted for each mixture and the performance and the accuracy of the predictions were compared to the results of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) algorithms, which are conventional and well-established machine learning techniques. The results of the study showed that MGGP can achieve a desirable performance, as the coefficients of determination for plain concrete, concrete with ash, and concrete with slag from the testing phase were equal to 0.928, 0.906, 0.890, respectively. In addition, it was found that MGGP outperforms ELM in all cases and its' accuracy is slightly less than ANN's accuracy. However, MGGP models are practical and easy-to-use since they extract closed-form formulas that may be implemented and used for the prediction of compressive strength.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.513-523
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• 2018

Time dependent strain due to creep is a significant factor in structural design. Multi-gene genetic programming (MGGP) and artificial neural network (ANN) are used to develop two models for prediction of creep compliance in concrete. The first model was developed by MGGP technique and the second model by hybridized MGGP-ANN. In the MGGP-ANN, the ANN is working in parallel with MGGP to predict errors in MGGP model. A total of 187 experimental data sets that contain 4242 data points are filtered from the NU-ITI database. These data are used in developing the MGGP and MGGP-ANN models. These models contain six input variables which are: average compressive strength at 28 days, relative humidity, volume to surface ratio, cement type, age at start of loading and age at the creep measurement. Practical equation based on MGGP was developed. A parametric study carried out with a group of hypothetical data generated among the range of data used to check the generalization ability of MGGP and MGGP-ANN models. To confirm validity of MGGP and MGGP-ANN models; two creep prediction code models (ACI209 and CEB), two empirical models (B3 and GL 2000) are used to compare their results with NU-ITI database.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.91 no.6
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• pp.643-656
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• 2024

The prediction of the moment rotation behavior of semi-rigid connections has been the subject of extensive research. However, to improve the accuracy of these predictions, there is a growing interest in employing machine learning algorithms. This paper investigates the effectiveness of using Multi-gene genetic programming (MGGP) to predict the moment-rotation behavior of flush-end plate connections compared to that of artificial neural networks (ANN) and previous studies. It aims to automate the process of determining the most suitable equations to accurately describe the behavior of these types of connections. Experimental data was used to train ANN and MGGP. The performance of the models was assessed by comparing the values of coefficient of determination (R²), maximum absolute error (MAE), and root-mean-square error (RMSE). The results showed that MGGP produced more accurate, reliable, and general predictions compared to ANN and previous studies with an R² exceeding 0.99, an RMSE of 6.97, and an MAE of 38.68, highlighting its advantages over other models. The use of MGGP can lead to better modeling and more precise predictions in structural design. Additionally, an experimentally-based regression analysis was conducted to obtain the rotational capacity of FECs. A new equation was proposed and compared to previous ones, showing significant improvement in accuracy with an R² score of 0.738, an RMSE of 0.014, and an MAE of 0.024.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.71 no.4
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• pp.329-339
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• 2019

Assessment of failure probability, especially for a complex structure, requires a considerable number of calls to the numerical model. Reliability methods have been developed to decrease the computational time. In this approach, the original numerical model is replaced by a surrogate model which is usually explicit and much faster to evaluate. The current paper proposed an efficient reliability method based on Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) and multi-gene genetic programming (MGGP) as a robust variant of genetic programming (GP). GP has been applied in different fields; however, its application to structural reliability has not been tested. The current study investigated the performance of MGGP as a surrogate model in structural reliability problems and compares it with other surrogate models. An adaptive Metropolis algorithm is utilized to obtain the training data with which to build the MGGP model. The failure probability is estimated by combining MCS and MGGP. The efficiency and accuracy of the proposed method were investigated with the help of five numerical examples.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.327-345
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• 2014

This paper presents the application of multi-gene genetic programming (MGP) technique for modeling the bond strength of ribbed steel bars in concrete. In this regard, the experimental data of 264 splice beam tests from different technical papers were used for training, validating and testing the model. Seven basic parameters affecting on the bond strength of steel bars were selected as input parameters. These parameters are diameter, relative rib area and yield strength of steel bar, minimum concrete cover to bar diameter ratio, splice length to bar diameter ratio, concrete compressive strength and transverse reinforcement index. The results show that the proposed MGP model can be alternative approach for predicting the bond strength of ribbed steel bars in concrete. Moreover, the performance of the developed model was compared with the building codes' empirical equations for a complete comparison. The study concludes that the proposed MGP model predicts the bond strength of ribbed steel bars better than the existing building codes' equations. Using the proposed MGP model and building codes' equations, a parametric study was also conducted to investigate the trend of the input variables on the bond strength of ribbed steel bars in concrete.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.551-564
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• 2022

Fragmenting the rock mass is considered as the most important work in open-pit mines. Ground vibration is the most hazardous issue of blasting which can cause critical damage to the surrounding structures. This paper focuses on developing an explicit model to predict the ground vibration through an multi objective evolutionary polynomial regression (MOGA-EPR). To this end, a database including 79 sets of data related to a quarry site in Malaysia were used. In addition, a gene expression programming (GEP) model and several empirical equations were employed to predict ground vibration, and their performances were then compared with the MOGA-EPR model using the mean absolute error (MAE), root mean square error (RMSE), mean (𝜇), standard deviation of the mean (𝜎), coefficient of determination (R²) and a20-index. Comparing the results, it was found that the MOGA-EPR model predicted the ground vibration more precisely than the GEP model and the empirical equations, where the MOGA-EPR scored lower MAE and RMSE, 𝜇 and 𝜎 closer to the optimum value, and higher R² and a20-index. Accordingly, the proposed MOGA-EPR model can be introduced as a useful method to predict ground vibration and has the capacity to be generalized to predict other blasting effects.