Prediction of Engineered Cementitious Composite Material Properties Using Artificial Neural Network

Abstract

Cement-based composite materials like Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECCs) are applicable in the strengthening of structures because of the high tensile strength and strain. Proper mix proportion, which has the best mechanical properties, is so essential in ECC design material to use in structural components. In this paper, after finding the best mix proportion based on uniaxial tensile strength and strain, the correlation between these parameters were calculated. Since material properties depend on the content ratios, six mixtures with different Fly Ash (FA) content were considered to find the best ECC mixture called Improved ECC (IECC). Also, The influence of local fine aggregates and FA on the tensile behavior of ECC was considered to introduce IECC which has the best tensile properties. To predict the mechanical properties of ECC based on experimental results, Artificial Neural Network (ANN) was used. Training and validation of the proposed model were carried out based on 36 experimental results to find the best results. Numerical analysis is utilized to find the best mix proportion of ECC in structural design. The results show that the effects of FA and fine aggregates are considerable. Also, The proposed ANN model predicts the tensile strength and strain of ECC with different FA ratios accurately. Furthermore, the model can estimate mechanical properties of ECC in previous experimental results.