In reinforced concrete (RC), concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are counteracted by reinforcement of materials having higher tensile strength or ductility, such as steel reinforcing bars. A remarkable concern in design of RC columns confined with transverse reinforcement is to achieve an acceptable estimation of confined compressive strength and strain factors when they are subjected to compressive and lateral loading. To cope with this issue, various models have been proposed by researchers due to the costly procedure of experimental studies and lack of high-capacity testing equipment. Despite this fact, there still exists the necessity to develop more robust estimation models. This paper explores the capability of gene expression programming for the prediction of confined compressive strength and strain of RC columns with circular cross section. A reliable database is used to develop two new models which can be used via hand calculations for design purposes. In order to verify and validate the proposed models, several analyses are conducted and the results are compared with those provided by other researchers. Consequently, the results explicitly represent that the proposed models accurately estimate the confined compressive strength and corresponding strain of circular concrete columns and reach a notably better prediction performance than the traditional models.

The concrete formwork process is a critical component of construction project control because failing to gain the necessary concrete strength can lead to reworks and, consequently, project delays and cost overruns during the project’s execution. The goal of this study is to develop a novel method of monitoring the maturity of concrete and providing reduced formwork removal time with the strength ensured in real-time. This method addresses the wireless sensors and building information modeling (BIM) needed to help project management personnel monitor the concrete’s status and efficiently decide on the appropriate formwork removal timing. Previous studies have focused only on the monitoring of concrete’s status using sensor data or planning the formwork layout by integrating the BIM environment into the design process. This study contributes to extending BIM’s interoperability for monitoring concrete’s maturity in real-time during construction, as well as determining the formwork removal time for project control. A case study was conducted at a building construction project to validate the developed framework. It was concluded that BIM can interoperate with the data collected from sensors embedded in concrete, and that this system can reduce formwork removal time while retaining sufficient strength in the concrete, rather than adhering to the removal time given in building code standards.