A Fuzzy System Methodology for Concrete Mixture Design Considering Maximum Packing Density and Minimum Cement Content

Abstract

Concrete mix proportioning could be referred to the process of determining the quantities of concrete ingredients using local materials to achieve specific characteristics of the concrete. Among the most important parameters affecting the performance of concrete are the packing density and the grading curve of the aggregates. Better packing of aggregates improves the strength, durability, elastic modulus and creep of the concrete. Accordingly, by increasing packing density and decreasing cement content, environment pollution will decrease. The present study proposes a fuzzybased technique for mix proportioning of normal concrete that increases packing density and decreases cement content. The proposed system utilizes four sub-fuzzy systems to quantify the target compressive strength, water-to-cement ratio, ideal grading curve and free water of the concrete. The results from the proposed fuzzy systems were compared with those obtained from the concrete mix proportioned by field experts. The comparison showed strong agreement between the results for the fuzzy and expert-proportioned mixtures. The proposed system used less cement and had a higher packing density than was found using other mixture proportioning methods.

Application of Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System for Evaluating Compressive Strength of Concrete

“…They concluded that the ANFIS model performs equally well or even superior to the FES model, even though it requires much less effort or subject expertise than that needed in the FES model, in which the if-else rules have to be manually input into the system by an expert. Ghoddousi et al [13] presented a set of FES and ANFIS submodels for the mix design of concrete. It was concluded that the model successfully provides the quantities of the various components for the mix design, ensuring maximum packing density and minimum cement content for a given design strength.…”

“…There are numerous applications of the ANFIS in the fields of concrete technology and structural engineering. The ANFIS has been used to model concrete strength in numerous studies [12][13][14]. In addition, the ANFIS is used for the prediction of concrete compressive strength based on various nondestructive tests [15][16][17].…”