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++ar - NN Applications in Concrete Structures
++ar - NN Applications in Concrete Structures
www.elsevier.com/locate/compstruc
Department of Civil, Mining and Envir. Eng., Faculty of Engineering, University of Wollongong, Northfields Avenue,
Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia
Received 1 October 2001; accepted 2 November 2002
Abstract
This paper presents and discusses the applications of neural networks in concrete structures. It aims at introducing
neural networks applications in structural design. The paper covers two applications of neural networks in concrete
structures. Backpropagation networks are chosen for the proposed network, which is written using the programming
package MAT-LAB. The overall results are compared and observed for the performance of the networks. Based on the
applications it was found that neural networks are comparatively effective for a number of reasons, which include the
amount of CPU memory consumed by neural networks is less than that consumed by conventional methods and their
ease of use and implementation, neural networks provide both the users and the developers more flexibility to cope with
different kinds of problems.
Ó 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +61-2-4221-4762; fax: +61-2- The cost function of a beam typically includes the
4221-3238. costs of concrete, the cost of reinforcement and the cost
E-mail address: mhadi@uow.edu.au (M.N.S. Hadi). of formworks as illustrated in Fig. 1.
0045-7949/03/$ - see front matter Ó 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S0045-7949(02)00451-0
374 M.N.S. Hadi / Computers and Structures 81 (2003) 373–381
pmin bd As 6 0 ð4Þ
Fig. 1. Beam cross-section.
where pmax and pmin are, respectively, the maximum and
minimum allowable reinforcement in a cross-section.
For simply supported beams it is sufficient to base the The side constraint that is incorporated with the means
design only on the section at mid-span, which produces of limit value of maximum depth hm of the beam is
maximum bending moment, and near a support which written as
produces maximum shear force, because most designs d hm 6 0 ð5Þ
determine the maximum bending moment and maxi-
mum shear. The amount of longitudinal reinforcement The optimisation problem is to minimize equation (1)
governed by mid-span flexural considerations may be subject to the constraints, Eqs. (3)–(5). The problem can
reduced towards the supports by curtailing some of the be solved by the Lagrange multipliers technique [2]. The
reinforcing bars as the bending moment envelope may solution is defined in terms of optimum p, d and As .
allow. On the other hand, the spacing of stirrups may be Using Lagrange multipliers technique the following
adjusted to the requirements of shear force envelope. expressions are obtained:
Finally, the reinforcement details will be subject to the 2Cf
1 þ bC
requirement of the design standard AS3600 [1]. poptimum ¼ c ð6Þ
Cs 2C f f
In this problem, the objective function is the cost unit Cc
þ 2:356 cCfc fsy0 þ 1:178 fsy0 1
c c
length of a reinforced concrete beam, which is given as
the following relationship: vffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
u 2
u C f f
u Mu CCcs þ 2:356 bCf c fsy0 þ 1:178 fsy0 1
Cost ¼ ½bðd þ d1 Þ As Cc þ As Cs þ ½2ðd þ d1 Þ þ bCf doptimum u
¼t c c
C f f Cf
ð1Þ 0:9fy b CCcs þ 1:178 bCf c fsy0 þ 0:59 fsy0 1 1 þ 2 bC c
c c
ð7Þ
Simplifying, we get:
vffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ffi
u
Cf Cs u bM 1 þ 2
fsy
Cost ¼ bCc 1 þ 2 d þ Cc 1 As u u fc0
bCc Cc AsðoptimumÞ ¼t
Cf fsy f
Cs
0:9fsy Cs þ 1:178 bCc f 0 þ 0:59 fsy0 1
Cf c c
þ Cc d1 þ ð2d1 þ bÞ ð8Þ
bCc
The above equations are used to build a database for the
where Cc is the cost of concrete per unit volume; Cs is the
different designs for the beams and then they are used to
cost of steel per unit volume; Cf is the cost of formwork
train the neural network.
per unit peripheral area; b is the width of the beam; d is
the effective depth of the beam; d1 is the cover to the
centroid of tensile reinforcement and As is the cross-
3. Optimisation of reinforced fibrous concrete beams
sectional area of tensile reinforcement.
The constraints for the optimisation problem are the
Concrete usually presents low tensile strength and
flexural strength, which can be represented as
insufficient ductile behaviour. Because of these defi-
fy ciencies prestressing has been applied in concrete mem-
Mu 6 / pbd 2 fy 1 0:59p 0 ð2Þ bers. However, the cost of production and equipment as
fc
well as the cost of labour for prestressing are compara-
where fc0 is the compressive strength of concrete; fy is the tively high. Alternatively, addition of steel fibres into
tensile strength of steel; p is the steel ratio, given by concrete has been found to increase tensile strength and
M.N.S. Hadi / Computers and Structures 81 (2003) 373–381 375
improve ductile behaviour of concrete members with tensile strength of hardened concrete itself. In addition,
relatively low cost. Steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC) their study has shown that high strength steel fibre can
is a concrete made of hydraulic cement with aggregates replace the vertical stirrups in RC structural members.
and is reinforced with discontinuous discrete steel fibres. As conventional stirrups require relatively high labour
In typical applications, ductile steel fibre is randomly input to bend and fix in place, such a replacement will
dispersed throughout the brittle low strength concrete to result in reducing the construction time and cost, espe-
improve tensile strength, ductility and fracture tough- cially in periods of high labour cost. Today there has
ness of reinforced concrete. been wide use of steel fibrous concrete in many appli-
In late 1960Õs and early 1970Õs steel fibre concrete had cations such as airport and highway pavement, indus-
been extensively studied and tested for the improvement trial flooring, bridge deck, parking area and structural
of concrete strength as well as to reduce sizes and weight members that need high shear resistance.
of concrete members. The early use of steel fibrous This section presents the optimisation of reinforced
concrete includes building slabs, road and airfield fibrous concrete beams in accordance with AS3600.
pavements. However, it had very little distribution to
structural design and construction at its early use. This 3.1. Analytical studies
fact is mainly due to the lack of its analysis and design
methods as well as the relatively low amount of study on The basic design assumptions of rectangular rein-
steel fibre [3]. The vast majority of steel fibrous concrete forced fibered concrete is represented in Fig. 2.
in that period had been constructed in the United States The nominal flexural strength of fibrous concrete
with some relatively minor applications in Europe, simply supported beam is given as the following rela-
Australia, India, and Taiwan [4]. tionship [4,8]
Since 1980Õs, there have been several vast develop- a a h a a
ments on steel fibre concrete. Besides the improvement Mn ¼ As fy d þ rt b h þ ð9Þ
2 b1 2 2b1 2
of tensile strength and ductility, a number of recent in-
vestigations have shown that steel fibres also have the and
ability to increase the flexural strength, bending moment
As fy
capacity, impact resistance, energy absorption, and b
þ rt h
a¼ ð10Þ
shear strength to reinforced concrete beams. Swamy and 0:85fc0 þ br1t
Al-TaÕan [5] reported that the presence of fibres in
concrete showed evidence of increasing of flexural stiff- where Mn is the nominal bending moment of cross-sec-
ness and significant decreasing of the number of cracks tion, As is the area of steel reinforcement, a is the depth
in concrete. Narayanan and Darwish [6] reported the of rectangular stress block, rt is the tensile stress in fi-
results from their experiment that 1% by volume of steel brous concrete, b is the beam width, d is the distance
fibre used in a concrete beam increased up to 170% of from the top fibre to the centroid of the steel bar, h is the
ultimate shear strength. height of the beam, and b1 is the factor of 0.65–0.85,
In 1999, Khuntia et al. [7] reported that careful depending on the concrete compressive strength [4].
proportion of high strength fibre steel presences in Paramasivam and Lin [8] suggested that b1 ¼ 0:9. This
concrete reduces cracks and improves post-cracking study takes b1 as 0.9.
The ductility requirement specifies that the reinforc- Z ¼ Cs ðchÞ þ Cs As þ Cu ð2h þ bÞ þ Cf RIðbhÞ
ing bar area, As , should be less than 0.75Asb , where
1
Asb ¼ pb ðbdÞ and pb is the steel ratio at balance condi- þ Cm Am ð2h þ bÞ ð19Þ
S
tion. The maximum reinforcement is given by
subject to constraints
0:85fc0 b1 þ rt ec rt h
ðAs Þmax ¼ 0:75bd
fy ec þ ey fy d M /Mn 6 0 ð20Þ
ð11Þ
pmin bd As 6 0 ð21Þ
The minimum reinforcing bar is given by
1:4 bmin b 6 0 ð22Þ
ðAs Þmin ¼ bd ð12Þ
fy
b bmax 6 0 ð23Þ
The effective tensile strength of fibrous concrete (MPa)
can be as
dmin d 6 0 ð24Þ
0:00772l
rt ¼ ð13Þ
df qf Fbe d dmax 6 0 ð25Þ
or
RImin RI 6 0 ð26Þ
rt ¼ lðRIÞ ð14Þ
where Fbe is the bond efficiency of fibres varies from 1.0 RI RImax 6 0 ð27Þ
to 1.2 [9], l is the fibre length (mm), df is the fibre di-
ameter (mm), qf is the percent by volume of steel fibres, where Cc is the unit cost of concrete, Cs is the unit cost of
RI is the reinforcing index, ðl=df Þqf , and l is a constant reinforcing bar, Cf is the unit cost of steel fibres, Cu is the
corresponding to Fbe [9], i.e. rt =RI. unit cost of labour, M is the applied moment, S is the
The ultimate shear strength of a fibre reinforced centre-to-centre spacing of shear reinforcement.
concrete beam with web reinforcement can be expressed For a given problem, values of fc0 , fy , the width and
as the maximum height of concrete section are known.
After the completion of the optimisation process, the
Vn ¼ Vf þ Vs ð15Þ optimum value of area of steel, depth of steel, beam
and width, area of stirrups, spacing of stirrups, moment ca-
pacity, resisted shear and minimum value of total cost
Am fy d are obtained.
Vs ¼ ð16Þ
S
Narayanan and Darwish [6] and Sharma [10] suggested
the shear stress of fibrous concrete as the following 4. Applications
equation:
0:25 4.1. Neural network for optimum design of beams
2 d
vf ¼ ft0 ð17Þ
3 a The developed database for the optimum design of
beams, which are based on the equations above, were
and ft0 , can be obtained from AS3600 used to train a neural network. The design input to
pffiffiffiffi
ft0 ¼ 0:4 fc0 ð18Þ the problem includes: applied moment, M ; concrete
strength, fc0 ; yield strength of steel reinforcement, fy ;
where Vn is the nominal shear stress of fibre reinforced beam width, b; maximum depth of beams, hm ; unit cost
concrete section, Vf is the shear stress of fibrous con- of concrete, Cs ; unit cost of steel reinforcement, Cs ; and
crete, Vs is the shear stress due to web reinforcement, and unit cost of formwork, Cf . The design output includes:
ft0 is the tensile strength of concrete based on splitting optimum steel ratio poptimum ; optimum area of rein-
cylinder test. forcement, AsðoptimumÞ ; optimum effective depth of beams,
doptimum ; and optimum unit cost of beams Coptimum .
3.2. Optimisation model Two alterative networks were considered. In the first
case, the cost of concrete, cost of steel and cost of
The objective function Z for steel reinforced fibrous formwork are not parts of inputs for a network. They
concrete beams subjected to bending and shear can be are taken as fixed values, which are specified by the user.
formulated as The neural network is presented in Fig. 3.
M.N.S. Hadi / Computers and Structures 81 (2003) 373–381 377
5. Discussion
Fig. 9. Area of tensile reinforcement generated by the network and from conventional method for the fibre reinforced concrete beams.
Fig. 10. Bending moment capacity of fibre reinforced concrete beams generated by the network and from conventional method.
Fig. 11. Total cost of fibre reinforced concrete beams generated by the network and from conventional method.
propagation with Levenberg–Marquardt updating rule Marquardt updating rule spent fewer epochs and less
consumes a significantly large amount of memory. In most time to converge. For example, when the first applica-
cases, it was found that backpropagation Levenberg– tion was tested with fast backpropagation, the network
380 M.N.S. Hadi / Computers and Structures 81 (2003) 373–381
sions, depth and width of its cross-section, and the cross- outputs and the ease of use is satisfactory. With careful
sectional area of reinforcement based on the Australian implementations, neural networks will be proficient to
Standard AS3600. Cost optimisation of concrete beam is solve a vast number of structural engineering problems.
to minimise the cost of material such as concrete, rein-
forcement and formwork, by optimising the beamÕs di-
mensions and its area of reinforcement, while satisfying
all the requirements, namely strength and serviceability. References
The second application is the optimum design of fibre
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