• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.68 no.6
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• pp.691-700
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• 2018

Ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) is a by product obtained from iron and steel industries, useful in the design and development of high quality cement paste/mortar and concrete. This paper investigates the applicability of relevance vector machine (RVM) based regression model to predict the compressive strength of various GGBS based concrete mixes. Compressive strength data for various GGBS based concrete mixes has been obtained by considering the effect of water binder ratio and steel fibres. RVM is a machine learning technique which employs Bayesian inference to obtain parsimonious solutions for regression and classification. The RVM is an extension of support vector machine which couples probabilistic classification and regression. RVM is established based on a Bayesian formulation of a linear model with an appropriate prior that results in a sparse representation. Compressive strength model has been developed by using MATLAB software for training and prediction. About 70% of the data has been used for development of RVM model and 30% of the data is used for validation. The predicted compressive strength for GGBS based concrete mixes is found to be in very good agreement with those of the corresponding experimental observations.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.307-316
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• 2019

Dam deformation should be strictly controlled for the construction of 300 m-high rockfill dams, so the rockfill materials need to have low porosity. A method of using composite grout is proposed to reduce the porosity of rockfill materials for the construction of high rockfill dams. The composite grout is a mixture of fly ash, cement and sand with the properties of easy flow and post-hardening. During the process of rolling compaction, the grout admixture sprinkled on the rockfill surface will gradually infiltrate into the inter-granular voids of rockfill by the exciting force of vibratory roller to reduce the porosity of rockfill. A visible flowing test was firstly designed to explore the flow characteristics of composite grout in porous media. Then, the compressibility, shear strength, permeability and suffusion susceptibility properties of composite grout-modified rockfill are studied by a series of laboratory tests. Experimental results show that the flow characteristics of composite grout are closely related to the fly ash content, the water-to-binder ratio, the maximum sand size and the content of composite grout. The filling of composite grout can effectively reduce the porosity of rockfill materials, as well as increase the compression modulus of rockfill materials, especially for loose and gap-graded rockfill materials. Composite grout-modified rockfill tends to have greater shear strength, larger suffusion erosion resistance, and smaller permeability coefficient. The composite grout mainly plays the roles of filling, lubrication and cementation in rockfill materials.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.127-140
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• 2021

In this study, twenty-five geopolymer (GP) mixes were prepared by varying the alkaline solids to Metakaolin (MK) and sodium silicate to NaOH ratios from 0.1 to 0.5 and 0.2 to 1.0, respectively, thus giving a wide range of molar ratios of silica to alumina, sodium oxide to alumina and water to sodium oxide. The compressive strength of these GP mixes was determined for four curing schemes involving oven curing at 100℃ for 24 h and three ambient curing with the curing ages of 3, 14, and 28 days. The test results revealed that for the manufacture of GP binder for structural applications of strength up to 90 MPa, the molar ratio of silica to alumina should be greater than 2.3, sodium oxide to alumina should be between 0.6 to 1.2, and water to sodium oxide should not exceed 12. The compressive strength of ambient cured GP mortar gets stabilized at 28 days of ambient curing. Experimental findings were also corroborated by GP microstructure analysis. The embodied energy of MK-based GP mortars, especially of high strength, is significantly less than the cement mortar of equivalent strength.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.291-305
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• 2022

The present investigation deals with the production of the innovative lightweight fly ash angular aggregates (FAA) first time in India using local class 'F' fly ash, its characterization, and exploring the potential for its utilization as alternative coarse aggregates in structural concrete applications. Two types of aggregates are manufactured using two different kinds of binders. The manufacturing process involves mixing fly ash, binder, and water, followed by the briquetting process, sintering and crushing them into suitable size aggregates. Tests are conducted on fly ash angular aggregates to measure their physical properties such as crushing value, impact value, specific gravity, water absorption, bulk density, and percentage of voids. Study shows that the physical parameters are significantly enhanced as compared to commercially available fly ash pellets (FAP). The developed FAA are used in concrete vis-à-vis conventional granite aggregates and FAP to determine their compressive, split tensile and flexural strengths. Although being lightweight, the strength parameters for concrete containing FAA are well compared with conventional concrete. This might be due to the high pozzolanic reaction between fly ash angular aggregates and cement paste. Also, RCC beams are cast and the load-deflection behaviour and ultimate load carrying capacity signify that FAA can be suitably used for RCC construction. Hence, the utilization of fly ash as angular aggregates can reduce the dead load of the structure and at the same time serves as a solution for fly ash disposal and mineral depletion problem.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.64 no.4
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• pp.65-72
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• 2022

For sustainable development in the construction industry, blast furnace slag has been used as a substitute for cement in concrete. In contrast, ferronickel slag, which is the by-product generated during smelting to ferronickel used in the manufacturing of stainless steel and nickel alloys, has a limitation to use as a binder and an aggregate due to its expansive characteristics. Recently, stabilization technology of ferronickel slag has been improved and studies have been carried out to utilize ferronicke slag as fine aggregate in concrete. Therefore, in this study, basic mechanical properties of concrete used in ferronickel slag aggregate was evaluated. The compressive strength (24, 30, 40 MPa) and replacement rate of ferronickel slag aggregate (0, 10, 25, 50%) were considered as experimental variables. As a result of test, concrete replaced fine aggregate with 25% ferronickel slag aggregate showed superior performance in the compressive strength and flexural strength.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.86 no.4
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• pp.431-441
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• 2023

The aim of this paper is to present a new sustainable ternary and quaternary binder by partially replacing ordinary Portland cement (OPC) with different percentages of supplementary cementitious materials. The motivation is to reduce our dependency on OPC to reduce CO₂ emission and carbon foot print. As the main substitute for the OPC, siliceous fly ash was used. Moreover, silica fume and nanosilica were also used. During examinations the main mechanical parameters of concrete composites, i.e., compressive strength (f_cm) and splitting tensile strength (f_ctm) were assed. The microstructure of these materials was also analysed. It was found that the concrete incorporating pozzolanic materials is characterized by a well-developed structure and has high values of mechanical parameters. The quaternary concrete containing: 80% OPC, 5% FA, 10% SF, and 5% nS have shown the best results in terms of good strength parameters as well as the most favourable microstructure, whereas the worst mechanical parameters with microstructure containing microcracks at phase interfaces were characterized by concrete with more content of FA additive in the concrete mix, i.e., 15%. Nevertheless, all concretes made on quaternary binders had better parameters than the reference one. It can be stated that sustainable concrete incorporating pozzolanic materials could be good substitute of ordinary concretes.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.347-360
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• 2022

Fiber-reinforced cementitious composites (FRCC) have emerged as a response to the calls for strong, ductile and sustainable concrete mixes. FRCC has shown outstanding mechanical properties and ductility where special fibres are used in the mixes to give it the strength and the ability to exhibit strain hardening. With the possibility of designing the FRCC mixes to include sustainable constituents and by-products materials such as fly ash, FRCC started to emerge as a green alternative as well. To be able to design mixes that achieve these conflicting properties in concrete, there is a need to understand the composition effect on FRCC and optimize these compositions. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the influence of FRCC compositions on the properties of fresh and hardened of FRCC and then to optimize these mix compositions using factorial design approach. Three factors, water-to-binder ratio (w/b), mineral admixtures (total of fly ash and metakaolin by cement content (MAR)), and metakaolin content (MK), were investigated to determine their effects on the properties of fresh and hardened FRCC. The results show the importance of combining both FA and MK in obtaining a satisfactory fresh and mechanical properties of FRCC. Models were suggested to elucidate the role of the studied factors and a method for optimization was proposed.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.373-381
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• 2023

Fly ash, granulated blast furnace slag, marble waste powder, etc. are just some of the by-products of other sectors that the construction industry is looking to include into the many types of concrete they produce. This research seeks to use surrogate machine learning methods to forecast the compressive strength of self-compacting concrete. The surrogate models were developed using Gradient Boosting Machine (GBM), Support Vector Machine (SVM), Random Forest (RF), and Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) techniques. Compressive strength is used as the output variable, with nano silica content, cement content, coarse aggregate content, fine aggregate content, superplasticizer, curing duration, and water-binder ratio as input variables. Of the four models, GBM had the highest accuracy in determining the compressive strength of SCC. The concrete's compressive strength is worst predicted by GPR. Compressive strength of SCC with nano silica is found to be most affected by curing time and least by fine aggregate.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.127-133
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• 2009

It is important to increase the strength of binders in order to enhance the strength of concrete. However, when the mineral admixture used for high strength concrete is incorporated individually, its dispersibility decreases due to the phenomenon of compaction, which reduces its fluidity and results in insufficient strength being created. To solve this problem, we can pre-mix each binder in advance to disperse a mineral admixture among binders, which will strengthen the fluidity and strength of concrete. Therefore, this study analyzed the properties of high strength concrete depending on the mix method used, to determine the effect of pre-mix cements ranging from W/B 15 to 35%. It was found that the fluidity of pre-mix increased to a level higher than that of individual mix due to its dispersion and ball bearing effect. The air content was slightly decreased from the result of individual mix due to the micro filler effect, which causes fine particles of silica-fume to fill the voids among cement particles, while the setting time of pre-mix was shorter than that of individual mix, because enhanced dispersion of pre-mix affects hydration heat time. The compressive strength of pre-mix increased due to the phenomenon of compaction of gap structure, and the variation of coefficient decreased by 1.69% on average in strength variation.

• Journal of the Korean Recycled Construction Resources Institute
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.114-121
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• 2010

Portland cement production is under critical review due to high amount of CO2 gas released to the atmosphere. Attempts to increase the utilization of a by-products such as fly ash and ground granulated blast-furnace slag to partially replace the cement in concrete are gathering momentum. But most of by-products is currently dumped in landfills, thus creating a threat to the environment. Many researches on alkali-activated concrete that does not need the presence of cement as a binder have been carried out recently. However, most study deal only with alkali-activated ground granulated blast furnace slag or fly ash, as for the combined use of the both, little information is reported. In this study, we investigated the influence of mixture ratio of fly ash/ blast furnace slag tand curing condition on the flowability and compressive strength of mortar in oder to develop cementless alkali-activated concrete. In view of the results, we found out that the mixture ratio of fly ash/blast furnace slag always results to be significant factors. But the influence of curing temperature in the strength development of mortar is lower than the contribution due to other factors. At the age of 28days, the mixture 50% fly ash and 50% ground granulated blast furnace slag activated with 1:1 the mass ratio of 9M NaOH and sodium silicate, develop compressive strength of about 65 MPa under $20^{\circ}C$ curing.