Technical Papers
Feb 1, 2012

Novel Approach to Strength Modeling of Concrete under Triaxial Compression

Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 24, Issue 9

Abstract

In this study, a robust variant of genetic programming, namely gene expression programming (GEP) was utilized to build a prediction model for the strength of concrete under triaxial compression loading. The proposed model relates the concrete triaxial strength to mix design parameters. A comprehensive database used for building the model was established on the basis of the results of 330 tests on concrete specimens under triaxial compression. To verify the predictability of the GEP model, it was employed to estimate the concrete strength of the specimens that were not included in the modeling process. Further, the model was externally validated using several statistical criteria recommended by researchers. A sensitivity analysis was carried out to determine the contributions of the parameters affecting the concrete strength. The proposed model is effectively capable of evaluating the ultimate strength of concrete under triaxial compression loading. The derived model performs superior when compared with other empirical models found in the literature. The GEP-based design equation can readily be used for predesign purposes or may be used as a fast check on solutions developed by more in-depth deterministic analyses.

Get full access to this article

View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.

References

Alavi, A. H., and Gandomi, A. H. (2011). “A robust data mining approach for formulation of geotechnical engineering systems.” Eng. Comput., 28(3), 242–274.
Ansari, F., and Li, Q. (1998). “High-strength concrete subjected to triaxial compression.” ACI Mater. J., 95(6), 747–755.
Arioglu, N., Girgin, Z. C., and Arioglu, E. (2006). “Evaluation of ratio between splitting tensile strength and compressive strength for concretes up to 120 MPa and its application in strength criterion.” ACI Mater. J., 103(1), 18–24.
ASTM. (2005). “Standard test method for determining the mechanical properties of hardened concrete under triaxial loads.” C801-05, West Conshohocken, PA.
Attard, M. M., and Setunge, S. (1996). “Stress-strain relationship of confined and unconfined concrete.” ACI Mater. J, 93(5), 432–442.
Avram, C., Facadaru, R. E., Filimon, I., Mîrşu, O., and Tertea, I. (1981). Concrete strength and strains, Elsevier Scientific, Amsterdam, 156–178.
Balmer, G. G. (1949). “Shearing strength of concrete under high triaxial stress—Computation of Mohr’s envelope as a curve.” Report SP-23, Structural Research Laboratory, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Denver.
Banzhaf, W., Nordin, P., Keller, R., and Francone, F. (1998). “Genetic programming—An introduction.” On the automatic evolution of computer programs and its application, dpunkt/Morgan Kaufmann, Heidelberg, Germany/San Francisco.
Bohwan, O., Myung-Ho, L., and Sang-John, P. (2007). “Experimental study of 60 MPa concrete under triaxial stress.” Structural Engineers World Congress (SEWC), Bangalore, India.
Candappa, D. C., Sanjayan, J. G., and Setunge, S. (2001). “Complete triaxial stress strain curves of high-strength concrete.” J. Mater. Civ. Eng., 13(3), 209–215.
Candappa, D. C., Setunge, S., and Sanjayan, J. G. (1999). “Stress versus strain relationship of high strength concrete under high lateral confinement.” Cem. Concr. Res., 29(1999), 1977–1982.
CEB-FIP Model. (1990). “Evaluation of the time dependent behavior of concrete.” Bulletin d’Information No., Comite European du Béton/Fédération Internationale de la Precontrainte, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Chen, L., and Wang, T. S. (2010). “Modeling strength of high-performance concrete using an improved grammatical evolution combined with macrogenetic algorithm.” J. Comput. Civ. Eng., 24(3), 281–288.
Chern, J.-C., Yang, H.-J., and Chen, H.-W. (1992). “Behavior of steel fiber reinforced concrete in multiaxial loading.” ACI Mater. J., 89(1), 32–40.
Chinn, J., and Zimmerman, R. M. (1965). “Behavior of plain concrete under various high triaxial compression loading conditions.” Technical Rep. No., Univ. of Colorado, Denver.
Cordon, W. A., and Gillespie, H. A. (1963). “Variables in concrete aggregates and Portland cement paste which influence the strength of concrete.” J. Am. Concr. Inst., 60(8), 1029–1052.
Dimopoulos, C., and Zalzala, A. M. S. (2001). “Investigating the use of genetic programming for a classic one-machine scheduling problem.” Adv. Eng. Softw., 32(6), 489–498.
Farnam, Y., Moosavi, M., Shekarchi, M., Babanajad, S. K., and Bagherzadeh, A. (2010). “Behaviour of slurry infiltrated fibre concrete (SIFCON) under triaxial compression.” Cem. Conc. Res., 40(11), 1571–1581.
Ferreira, C. (2001). “Gene expression programming: A new adaptive algorithm for solving problems.” Complex Syst., 13(2), 87–129.
Frank, I. E., and Todeschini, R. (1994). The data analysis handbook, Elsevier, Amsterdam.
Gandomi, A. H., Alavi, A. H., Mirzahosseini, M. R., and Nejad, F. M. (2011). “Nonlinear genetic-based models for prediction of flow number of asphalt mixtures.” J. Mater. Civ. Eng., 23(3), 248–263.
GeneXpro Tools 4.0 [Computer software]. (2006). Bristol, UK, GEPSOFT Ltd.
Girgin, Z. C., Arioglu, N., and Arioglu, E. (2007). “Evaluation of strength criteria for very-high-strength concretes under triaxial compression.” ACI Struct. J., 104(3), 278–284.
Golbraikh, A., and Tropsha, A. (2002). “Beware of q2!” J. Mol. Graphics Modell., 20(4), 269–276.
Gupta, R., Kewalramani, M. A., and Goel, A. (2006). “Prediction of concrete strength using neural-expert system.” J. Mat. Civ. Eng., 18(3), 462–466.
Guven, A., and Aytek, A. (2009). “New approach for stage–discharge relationship: Gene-expression programming.” J. Hydrol. Eng., 14(8), 812–820.
Imran, I., and Pantazopoulou, S. J. (1996). “Experimental study of plain concrete under triaxial stress.” ACI Mater. J., 93(6), 589–601.
Javadi, A. A., and Rezania, M. (2009). “Applications of artificial intelligence and data mining techniques in soil modeling.” Geomech. Eng., 1(1), 53–74.
Johnston, I. W. (1985). “Strength of intact geomechanical materials.” J. Geotech. Eng., 111(6), 730–748.
Koza, J. R. (1992). Genetic programming: On the programming of computers by means of natural selection, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Lahlou, K., Aitcin, P. C., and Chaallal, O. (1992). “Behavior of high-strength concrete under confined stresses.” Cem. Concr. Compos., 14, 185–193.
Lan, S., and Guo, Z. (1997). “Experimental investigation of multiaxial compressive strength of concrete under different stress paths.” ACI Mater. J., 94(5), 427–434.
Légeron, F., and Paultre, P. (2003). “Uniaxial confinement model for normal- and high-strength concrete columns.” J. Struct. Eng., 129(2), 241–252.
Li, Q., and Ansari, F. (2000). “High-strength concrete in triaxial compression by different sizes of specimens.” ACI Mater. J., 97(6), 684–689.
Lu, X. (2005). “Uniaxial and triaxial behavior of high strength concrete with and without steel fibers.” Ph.D. thesis, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ.
Lu, X., and Hsu, C.-T. T. (2006). “Behavior of high strength concrete with and without steel fiber reinforcement in triaxial compression.” Cem. Concr. Res., 36(9), 1679–1685.
Lu, X., and Hsu, C.-T. T. (2007). “Stress-strain relations of high-strength concrete under triaxial compression.” J. Mat. Civ. Eng., 19(3), 261–268.
Martinez, S., Nilson, A. H., and Slate, F. O. (1984). “Spirally reinforced high-strength concrete columns.” J. Am. Concr. Inst., 81(5), 431–442.
Mei, H., Kiousis, P. D., Ehsani, M. R., and Saadatmanesh, H. (2001). “Confinement effects on high-strength concrete.” ACI Struct. J., 98(4), 548–553.
Milani, G., and Benasciutti, D. (2010). “Homogenized limit analysis of masonry structures with random input properties: Polynomial response surface approximation and Monte Carlo simulations.” Struct. Eng. Mech., 34(4), 417–445.
Milani, G., and Milani, F. (2007). “Genetic algorithm for the determination of binodal curves in ternary systems polymer–liquid(1)–liquid(2) and polymer(1)–polymer(2)–solvent.” J. Comput. Chem, 28(13), 2203–2215.
Milani, G., and Milani, F. (2008). “Genetic algorithm for the optimization of rubber insulated high voltage power cables production lines.” Comput. Chem. Eng., 32(12), 3198–3212.
Mullar, K. F. (1975). dissertation, Technische Universitat, Munchen, Germany.
Nielsen, C. V. (1998). “Triaxial behavior of high-strength concrete and mortar.” ACI Mater. J., 95(2), 144–151.
Richart, E., Brandtzaeg, A., and Brown, R. L. (1929). “Failure of plain and spirally reinforced concrete in compression.” Bulletin 190, Univ. of Illinois Engineering Experimental Station, Champaign, IL.
Roy, P. P., and Roy, K. (2008). “On some aspects of variable selection for partial least squares regression models.” QSAR Comb. Sci., 27(3), 302–313.
Saatcioglu, M., and Razvi, S. R. (1992). “Strength and ductility of confined concrete.” J. Struct. Eng., 118(6), 1590–1607.
Saatcioglu, M., and Razvi, S. R. (2002). “Displacement-based design of reinforced concrete columns for confinement.” ACI Struct. J., 99(1), 3–11.
Samaan, M., Mirmiran, A., and Shahawy, M. (1998). “Model of concrete confined by fiber composites.” J. Struct. Eng., 124(9), 1025–1031.
Setunge, S., Attard, M. M., and Darvall, P. (1993). “Ultimate strength of confined very high-strength concretes.” ACI Struct. J., 90(6), 632–641.
Sfer, D., Carol, I., Gettu, R., and Etse, G. (2002). “Study of the behavior of concrete under triaxial compression.” J. Eng. Mech., 128(2), 156–163.
Smith, G. N. (1986). Probability and statistics in civil engineering, Collins, London.
Tang, C.-W. (2010). “Radial basis function neural network models for peak stress and strain in plain concrete under triaxial stress.” J. Mater. Civ. Eng., 22(9), 923–934.
Xie, J., Elwi, A. E., and MacGregor, J. G. (1995). “Mechanical properties of three high-strength concretes containing silica fume.” ACI Mater. J., 92(2), 135–145.
Yeh, I.-C. (2006). “Analysis of strength of concrete using design of experiments and neural networks.” J. Mater. Civ. Eng., 18(4), 597–604.

Information & Authors

Information

Published In

Go to Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 24Issue 9September 2012
Pages: 1132 - 1143

History

Received: Jan 5, 2011
Accepted: Jan 30, 2012
Published online: Feb 1, 2012
Published in print: Sep 1, 2012

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Authors

Affiliations

Amir Hossein Gandomi [email protected]
S.M.ASCE
Dept. of Civil Engineering, The Univ. of Akron, Akron, OH 44325 (corresponding author). E-mail: [email protected]
Saeed Karim Babanajad [email protected]
Construction Materials Institute, School of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Univ. of Tehran, Tehran, Iran. E-mail: [email protected]
Amir Hossein Alavi [email protected]
School of Civil Engineering, Iran Univ. of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran. E-mail: [email protected]
Yaghoob Farnam [email protected]
Construction Materials Institute, School of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Univ. of Tehran, Tehran, Iran. E-mail: [email protected]

Metrics & Citations

Metrics

Citations

Download citation

If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.

Cited by

View Options

Get Access

Access content

Please select your options to get access

Log in/Register Log in via your institution (Shibboleth)
ASCE Members: Please log in to see member pricing

Purchase

Save for later Information on ASCE Library Cards
ASCE Library Cards let you download journal articles, proceedings papers, and available book chapters across the entire ASCE Library platform. ASCE Library Cards remain active for 24 months or until all downloads are used. Note: This content will be debited as one download at time of checkout.

Terms of Use: ASCE Library Cards are for individual, personal use only. Reselling, republishing, or forwarding the materials to libraries or reading rooms is prohibited.
ASCE Library Card (5 downloads)
$105.00
Add to cart
ASCE Library Card (20 downloads)
$280.00
Add to cart
Buy Single Article
$35.00
Add to cart

Get Access

Access content

Please select your options to get access

Log in/Register Log in via your institution (Shibboleth)
ASCE Members: Please log in to see member pricing

Purchase

Save for later Information on ASCE Library Cards
ASCE Library Cards let you download journal articles, proceedings papers, and available book chapters across the entire ASCE Library platform. ASCE Library Cards remain active for 24 months or until all downloads are used. Note: This content will be debited as one download at time of checkout.

Terms of Use: ASCE Library Cards are for individual, personal use only. Reselling, republishing, or forwarding the materials to libraries or reading rooms is prohibited.
ASCE Library Card (5 downloads)
$105.00
Add to cart
ASCE Library Card (20 downloads)
$280.00
Add to cart
Buy Single Article
$35.00
Add to cart

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

Share

Share

Copy the content Link

Share with email

Email a colleague

Share