• Computers and Concrete
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.739-754
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• 2024

This study presents an innovative AI-driven approach to assess the ultimate axial load in Double-Skinned Profiled Steel sheet Composite Walls (DPSCWs). Utilizing a dataset of 80 entries, seven input parameters were employed, and various AI techniques, including Linear Regression, Polynomial Regression, Support Vector Regression, Decision Tree Regression, Decision Tree with AdaBoost Regression, Random Forest Regression, Gradient Boost Regression Tree, Elastic Net Regression, Ridge Regression, and LASSO Regression, were evaluated. Decision Tree Regression and Random Forest Regression emerged as the most accurate models. The top three performing models were integrated into a hybrid approach, excelling in accurately estimating DPSCWs' ultimate axial load. This adaptable hybrid model outperforms traditional methods, reducing errors in complex scenarios. The validated Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model showcases less than 1% error, enhancing reliability. Correlation analysis highlights robust predictions, emphasizing the importance of steel sheet thickness. The study contributes insights for predicting DPSCW strength in civil engineering, suggesting optimization and database expansion. The research advances precise load capacity estimation, empowering engineers to enhance construction safety and explore further machine learning applications in structural engineering.

• 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.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.11-23
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• 2022

Conventional concrete needs some improvement in the mechanical properties, which can be obtained by different admixtures. However, making concrete samples costume always time and money. In this paper, different types of hybrid algorithms are applied to develop predictive models for forecasting compressive strength (CS) of concretes containing metakaolin (MK) and fly ash (FA). In this regard, three different algorithms have been used, namely multilayer perceptron (MLP), radial basis function (RBF), and support vector machine (SVR), to predict CS of concretes by considering most influencers input variables. These algorithms integrated with the grey wolf optimization (GWO) algorithm to increase the model's accuracy in predicting (GWMLP, GWRBF, and GWSVR). The proposed MLP models were implemented and evaluated in three different layers, wherein each layer, GWO, fitted the best neuron number of the hidden layer. Correspondingly, the key parameters of the SVR model are identified using the GWO method. Also, the optimization algorithm determines the hidden neurons' number and the spread value to set the RBF structure. The results show that the developed models all provide accurate predictions of the CS of concrete incorporating MK and FA with R² larger than 0.9972 and 0.9976 in the learning and testing stage, respectively. Regarding GWMLP models, the GWMLP1 model outperforms other GWMLP networks. All in all, GWSVR has the worst performance with the lowest indices, while the highest score belongs to GWRBF.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.187-209
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• 2013

This paper presents a study on the prediction of transfer length of 13 mm seven-wire prestressing steel strand in pretensioned prestressed concrete members with rectangular cross-section including several material properties and design and manufacture parameters. To this end, a carefully selected database consisting of 207 different cases coming from 18 different sources spanning a variety of practical transfer length prediction situations was compiled. 16 single input features and 5 combined input features are analyzed. A widely used feedforward neural regression model was considered as a representative of several machine learning methods that have already been used in the engineering field. Classical multiple linear regression was also considered in order to comparatively assess performance and robustness in this context. The results show that the implemented model has good prediction and generalization capacity when it is used on large input data sets of practical interest from the engineering point of view. In particular, a neural model is proposed -using only 4 hidden units and 10 input variables-which significantly reduces in 30% and 60% the errors in transfer length prediction when using standard linear regression or fixed formulas, respectively.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.727-743
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• 2014

The management of existing concrete bridges has become a major social concern in many developed countries due to the large number of bridges exhibiting signs of significant deterioration. This problem has increased the demand for effective maintenance and renewal planning. In order to implement an appropriate management procedure for a structure, a wide array of corrective strategies must be evaluated with respect to not only the condition state of each defect but also safety, economy and sustainability. This paper describes a new performance evaluation system for existing concrete bridges. The system evaluates performance based on load carrying capability and durability from the results of a visual inspection and specification data, and describes the necessity of maintenance. It categorizes all girders and slabs as either unsafe, severe deterioration, moderate deterioration, mild deterioration, or safe. The technique employs an expert system with an appropriate knowledge base in the evaluation. A characteristic feature of the system is the use of neural networks to evaluate the performance and facilitate refinement of the knowledge base. The neural network proposed in the present study has the capability to prevent an inference process and knowledge base from becoming a black box. It is very important that the system is capable of detailing how the performance is calculated since the road network represents a huge investment. The effectiveness of the neural network and machine learning method is verified by comparing diagnostic results by bridge experts.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.531-545
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• 2023

Composite dowels are implemented as a powerful alternative to headed studs for the efficient combination of Ultra High-Performance Concrete (UHPC) with high-strength steel in novel composite structures. They are required to provide sufficient shear resistance and ensure the transmission of tensile forces in the composite connection in order to prevent lifting of the concrete slab. In this paper, the load bearing capacity of puzzle-shaped and clothoidal-shaped dowels encased in UHPC specimen were investigated based on validated experimental test data. Considering the influence of the embedment depth and the spacing width of shear dowels, the characteristics of UHPC square plate on the load bearing capacity of composite structure, 240 numeric models have been constructed and analyzed. Three artificial intelligence approaches have been implemented to learn the discipline from collected experimental data and then make prediction, which includes Artificial Neural Network-Particle Swarm Optimization (ANN-PSO), Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) and an Extreme Learning Machine (ELM). Among the factors, the embedment depth of composite dowel is proved to be the most influential parameter on the load bearing capacity. Furthermore, the results of the prediction models reveal that ELM is capable to achieve more accurate prediction.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.83-95
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• 2024

The prediction of seismic behavior of the existing building stock is one of the most impactful and complex problems faced by countries with frequent and intense seismic activities. Human lives can be threatened or lost, the economic life is disrupted and large amounts of monetary reparations can be potentially required. However, authorities at a regional or national level have limited resources at their disposal in order to allocate to preventative measures. Thus, in order to do so, it is essential for them to be able to rank a given population of structures according to their expected degree of damage in an earthquake. In this paper, the authors present a ranking approach, based on Machine Learning (ML) algorithms for pairwise comparisons, coupled with ad hoc ranking rules. The case study employed data from 404 reinforced concrete structures with various degrees of damage from the Athens 1999 earthquake. The two main components of our experiments pertain to the performance of the ML models and the success of the overall ranking process. The former was evaluated using the well-known respective metrics of Precision, Recall, F1-score, Accuracy and Area Under Curve (AUC). The performance of the overall ranking was evaluated using Kendall's tau distance and by viewing the problem as a classification into bins. The obtained results were promising, and were shown to outperform currently employed engineering practices. This demonstrated the capabilities and potential of these models in identifying the most vulnerable structures and, thus, mitigating the effects of earthquakes on society.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.501-509
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• 2022

Cracks are common defects in concrete structures. Thus far, crack inspection has been manually performed using the contact inspection method. This manpower-dependent method inevitably increases the cost and work hours. Various non-contact studies have been conducted to overcome such difficulties. However, previous studies have focused on developing a methodology for non-contact inspection or local quantitative detection of crack width or length on concrete surfaces. However, crack depth can affect the safety of concrete structures. In particular, although macrocrack depth is structurally fatal, it is difficult to find it with the existing method. Therefore, an experimental investigation based on non-contact infrared thermography and multivariate machine learning was performed in this study to estimate the hidden macrocrack depth. To consider practical applications for inspection, an experiment was conducted that considered the simulated piloting of an unmanned aerial vehicle equipped with infrared thermography equipment. The crack depths (10-60 mm) were comparatively evaluated using linear regression, gradient boosting, and random forest (AI regression methods).

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.177-189
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• 2024

Accurately predicting the failure modes of reinforced concrete (RC) columns is essential for structural design and assessment. In this study, the challenges of imbalanced datasets and complex feature selection in machine learning (ML) methods were addressed through an optimized ML approach. By combining feature selection and oversampling techniques, the prediction of seismic failure modes in rectangular RC columns was improved. Two feature selection methods were used to identify six input parameters. To tackle class imbalance, the Borderline-SMOTE1 algorithm was employed, enhancing the learning capabilities of the models for minority classes. Eight ML algorithms were trained and fine-tuned using k-fold shuffle split cross-validation and grid search. The results showed that the artificial neural network model achieved 96.77% accuracy, while k-nearest neighbor, support vector machine, and random forest models each achieved 95.16% accuracy. The balanced dataset led to significant improvements, particularly in predicting the flexure-shear failure mode, with accuracy increasing by 6%, recall by 8%, and F1 scores by 7%. The use of the Borderline-SMOTE1 algorithm significantly improved the recognition of samples at failure mode boundaries, enhancing the classification performance of models like k-nearest neighbor and decision tree, which are highly sensitive to data distribution and decision boundaries. This method effectively addressed class imbalance and selected relevant features without requiring complex simulations like traditional methods, proving applicable for discerning failure modes in various concrete members under seismic action.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.22 no.10
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• pp.5-12
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• 2021

The deterioration of facilities is an unavoidable phenomenon. For the management of aging facilities, cracks can be detected and tracked, and the condition of the facilities can be indirectly inferred. Therefore, crack detection plays a crucial role in the management of aged facilities. Conventional maintenances are conducted using the crack detection results. For example, maintenance activities to prevent further deterioration can be performed. However, currently, most crack detection relies only on human judgment, so if the area of the facility is large, cost and time are excessively used, and different judgment results may occur depending on the expert's competence, it causes reliability problems. This paper proposes a concrete crack detection framework based on machine learning to overcome these limitations. Fully automated concrete crack detection was possible through the proposed framework, which showed a high accuracy of 96%. It is expected that effective and efficient management will be possible through the proposed framework in this paper.