Modeling the compressive strength behavior of concrete reinforced with basalt fiber

This research investigates the compressive strength behavior of basalt fiber-reinforced concrete (BFRC) using machine learning models to optimize predictions and enhance its practical applications. The study incorporates various modeling techniques, including Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), k-Nearest Neighbors (KNN), Support Vector Machines (SVM), Decision Trees, and Random Forest (RF), to evaluate their predictive capabilities. Basalt Fiber Reinforced Concrete (BFRC) is a composite material that incorporates basalt fibers into traditional concrete to enhance its mechanical and durability properties. The use of basalt fibers, derived from natural volcanic rocks, aligns with sustainability goals due to their eco-friendliness, cost-effectiveness, and high performance. BFRC combines structural excellence with sustainability, making it an ideal material for modern construction practices. Its ability to enhance performance, reduce environmental impact, and ensure long-term durability positions it as a pivotal solution for sustainable infrastructure development. The developed models were used to predict compressive strength of basalt fiber concrete (Cs_bf) using the concrete mixture contents, age, and fiber dimensions. All the developed models were created using "Orange Data Mining" software version 3.36. A total of three hundred and nine (309) records were collected from literature for compressive strength for different mixing ratios of basalt fiber concrete with concrete at different ages. Each record contains the following data: C-Cement content (Kg/m³), FA-Fly ash content (Kg/m³), W-Water content (Kg/m³), SP-Super-plasticizer content (Kg/m³), CAg-Coarse aggregates content (Kg/m³), FAg-Fine aggregates content (Kg/m³), Age-The concrete age at testing (days), L_b-length of basalt fibers (mm), d_bf-Diameter of basalt fibers (µm), V_bf-Volume content of basalt fibers (%) and Cs_bf-Compressive strength of basalt fibre concrete (MPa). The collected records were divided into training set (249 records≈80%) and validation set (60 records≈ 20%). At the end of the process, it can be shown that the present research work outclassed other ML techniques applied in the previous research paper, which reported the utilization of the same size of data entries and basalt reinforced concrete constituents. Taylor chart for measured compressive strength of basalt fiber reinforced concrete predicted with ANN, KNN, SVM, Tree and RF is presented for comparing the performance of predictive models by illustrating three key statistical measures simultaneously: the correlation coefficient (R), the normalized standard deviation (σ), and the root-mean-square error (RMSE). Finally, it can be deduced that after considering the performance indices of the selected ensemble and classification models utilized in this present research paper, all the developed modes have almost the same excellent level of accuracy 95%, but ANN, KNN, and SVR produced R2 of 0.98 each with KNN producing MAE of 1.4 MPa, and MSE of 2.5 MPa to outperform ANN and SVR which produced MAE of 1.55 MPa/MSE of 4.1 MPa and MAE of 1.6 MPa/MSE of 3.85 MPa, respectively. Three techniques were used to estimate the impact of each input on the compressive strength, namely correlation matrix, sensitivity analysis and relative importance chart.