Abstract
Fly ash (FA) – an industrial byproduct – is used to partially substitute Portland cement (PC) in concrete to mitigate concrete's environmental impact. Chemical composition and structure of FAs significantly impact hydration kinetics and compressive strength of concrete. Due to the substantial diversity in these physicochemical attributes of FAs, it has been challenging to develop a generic theoretical framework – and, therefore, theory-based analytical models – that could produce reliable, a priori predictions of properties of [PC + FA] binders. In recent years, machine learning (ML) – which is purely data-driven, as opposed to being derived from theorical underpinnings – has emerged as a promising tool to predict and optimize properties of complex, heterogenous materials, including the aforesaid binders. That said, there are two issues that stand in the way of widespread use of ML models: (1) ML models require thousands of data-records to learn input-output correlations and developing such a large, yet consistent database is impractical; and (2) ML models – while good at producing predictions – are unable to reveal the underlying correlation between composition/structure of material and its properties. This study employs a deep forest (DF) model to predict composition- and time-dependent hydration kinetics and compressive strength of [PC + FA] binders. Data dimensionality-reduction and segmentation techniques – premised on theoretical understanding of composition-structure correlations in FAs, and hydration mechanism of PC – are used to boost the DF model's prediction performance. And, finally, through inference of the intermediate and final outputs of the DF model, a simple, closed-form analytical model is developed to predict compressive strength, and reveal the correlations between mixture design and compressive strength of [PC + FA] binders.
Recommended Citation
T. Han et al., "Deep Learning to Predict the Hydration and Performance of Fly Ash-Containing Cementitious Binders," Cement and Concrete Research, vol. 165, article no. 107093, Elsevier, Mar 2023.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cemconres.2023.107093
Department(s)
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Second Department
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Third Department
Materials Science and Engineering
Keywords and Phrases
And Compressive Strength; Deep Forest; Hydration; Network Topology; Segmentation
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
0008-8846
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2023 Elsevier, All rights reserved.
Publication Date
01 Mar 2023
Included in
Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons, Electrical and Computer Engineering Commons
Comments
National Science Foundation, Grant 1932690