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Modelling mechanical behaviour of rubber concrete using evolutionary polynomial regression

Alireza Ahangar‐Asr (Computational Geomechanics Group, College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK)
Asaad Faramarzi (Computational Geomechanics Group, College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK)
Akbar A. Javadi (Computational Geomechanics Group, College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK)
Orazio Giustolisi (Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Technical University of Bari, Taranto, Italy)

Engineering Computations

ISSN: 0264-4401

Article publication date: 31 May 2011

681

Abstract

Purpose

Using discarded tyre rubber as concrete aggregate is an effective solution to the environmental problems associated with disposal of this waste material. However, adding rubber as aggregate in concrete mixture changes, the mechanical properties of concrete, depending mainly on the type and amount of rubber used. An appropriate model is required to describe the behaviour of rubber concrete in engineering applications. The purpose of this paper is to show how a new evolutionary data mining technique, evolutionary polynomial regression (EPR), is used to predict the mechanical properties of rubber concrete.

Design/methodology/approach

EPR is a data‐driven method based on evolutionary computing, aimed to search for polynomial structures representing a system. In this technique, a combination of the genetic algorithm and the least square method is used to find feasible structures and the appropriate constants for those structures.

Findings

Data from 70 cases of experiments on rubber concrete are used for development and validation of the EPR models. Three models are developed relating compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, and elastic modulus to a number of physical parameters that are known to contribute to the mechanical behaviour of rubber concrete. The most outstanding characteristic of the proposed technique is that it provides a transparent, structured, and accurate representation of the behaviour of the material in the form of a polynomial function, giving insight to the user about the contributions of different parameters involved. The proposed model shows excellent agreement with experimental results, and provides an efficient method for estimation of mechanical properties of rubber concrete.

Originality/value

In this paper, a new evolutionary data mining approach is presented for the analysis of mechanical behaviour of rubber concrete. The new approach overcomes the shortcomings of the traditional and artificial neural network‐based methods presented in the literature for the analysis of slopes. EPR provides a viable tool to find a structured representation of the system, which allows the user to gain additional information on how the system performs.

Keywords

Citation

Ahangar‐Asr, A., Faramarzi, A., Javadi, A.A. and Giustolisi, O. (2011), "Modelling mechanical behaviour of rubber concrete using evolutionary polynomial regression", Engineering Computations, Vol. 28 No. 4, pp. 492-507. https://doi.org/10.1108/02644401111131902

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2011, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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