Prediction of Concrete and Steel Materials Contained by Cantilever Retaining Wall by Modeling the Artificial Neural Networks

Abstract

In this study, the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) application is implemented for predicting the required concrete volume and amount of the steel reinforcement within the inversed-T-shaped and stem-stepped reinforced concrete (RC) walls. For this aim, seven-different RC wall designs were approached differentiated within the wall heights and various internal friction angles of backfill materials. Each RC wall is proportionally designed and subjected to active lateral earth pressure defined with the Mononobe-Okabe approach foreseen by Turkish Specification for Building to be Built in Seismic Zones (TSC-2007)[14]. Following the stability analysis of the RC retaining walls, the structural and reinforced concrete analyses are performed according to the Turkish Standard on Requirements for Design and Construction in Reinforced Concrete Structures (TS500-2000)[15]. Input parameters such as concrete volumes, weights of the steel bars, soil and wall material properties are subjected to the ANN modeling. The prediction of the concrete volume and amount of the steel bars are achieved with the implementation of the ANN model trained with the Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) algorithm. As a result of this study, it is revealed that ANN models are useful for verifying the existing RC retaining wall designs or performing preliminary designs for the L-shaped and stem-stepped cantilever retaining walls.