A metaheuristic-guided machine learning approach for concrete strength prediction with high mix design variability using ultrasonic pulse velocity data

Abstract

Assessment of concrete strength in existing structures is a common engineering problem. Several attempts in the literature showed the potential of ML methods for predicting concrete strength using concrete properties and NDT values as inputs. However, almost all such ML efforts based on NDT data trained models to predict concrete strength for a specific concrete mix design. We trained a global ML-based model that can predict concrete strength for a wide range of concrete types. This study uses data with high variability for training a metaheuristic-guided ANN model that can cover most concrete mixes used in practice. We put together a dataset that has large variations of mix design components. Training an ANN model using this dataset introduced significant test errors as expected. We optimized hyperparameters, architecture of the ANN model and performed feature selection using genetic algorithm. The proposed model reduces test errors from 9.3 MPa to 4.8 MPa.