Engineering for Self Reliance and Sustainable Goals

A recent novel building material that is tailored to overcoming aforesaid drawbacks of the conventional concrete is popularly
known as ‘Engineered Geopolymer Composites’ (EGC). EGC is the hybrid combination of Engineered Cementitious Composites
(ECC) and Geopolymer Concrete (GPC). ECC is a kind of ultra-high ductile fiber reinforced cementitious composites that uses
a special synthetic fiber called Polyvinyl alcohol fiber (PVA) that enhances the ductility of the material. The material ingredients
of ECC are tailored in such a way that the fiber bridging capacity is greater than the matrix toughness post-first crack, thereafter
leads to the formation of multiple cracks (micrometer crack width) thereby enhances strain-hardening criteria. Because of this
peculiar property, the concrete composite attains flexible nature, thus it is also known as “Flexible concrete”.
Replacing the cement in ECC with Geopolymer binder which is 100% eco-friendly sustainable materials, is called as EGC.
Thus, EGC, which comprises of 100% eco-friendly material ingredients that overcome the brittle failure of conventional
concrete, serving both environmental and technical aspects. The recent researches on ECC and EGC material behaviour have
been summarized in the literature review section. This paper attempts to apply artificial intelligence tool(s) that would facilitate
the researchers around the world for advanced EGC material research.
Literature Review
Material research on EGC has started a decade back. Researches tried to develop EGC material with various industrial by-
products in mixed proportions. Kan et al [1] have used Metakaolin and Flyash in mixed proportions and obtained the maximum
strain capacity of 6.8%. 100% Metakaolin was used by Ekatpuri et al [2] with varying volume fractions of PVA fiber and it
reveals that 0. 6% Volume fraction was optimum. Ling et al [3] used slag along with ash i.e., Ground Granulated Blast furnace
Slag (GGBS) and Flyash in mixed proportions and the optimum was 80% flyash with 20% GGBS. Some notable variations
on PVA fibers and fine aggregate have also been carried out by the researchers which include lightweight fillers like expanded
perlites [4]; and some micro-fibers like polypropylene fibers are added along with PVA fibers [5].
Initially, in the early 2000s, ANN has been used to predict the compressive strength of concrete [6] and prejudge the workability
by estimating the slump of concrete. [7]. Later, keeping the strength and/or workability as inputs, researchers have analyzed the
mix-design contents, thereby engineers can alter the material proportions to obtain the desired strength. Generally, the literature
reveals that ANN gives maximum accuracy in prediction to the range 80-95%. Similarly, the ANFIS tool has also been used
in similar applications as that of ANN. Sadrmomtazi et al [8] have predicted the compressive strength of lightweight concrete
using ANN and ANFIS models it is concluded that bell-shapes membership function has produced the accuracy level of 98%.
Vakhshouri et al [9] have estimated the compressive strength of high strength self-compacting concrete and they reveal that
ANFIS established a strong correlation between mix-factors and strength.
Need for Study
The main fact to be analysed before involving the usage of GPC in construction is the ‘local availability’ of concrete ingredients.
GPC uses any kind of alumino-silicate based industrial by-products like Flyash, GGBS, Metakaolin, Silica fume etc., as a
binding material; where each material has its peculiar merits and demerits on mechanical properties of the GPC composites.
For instance, Flyash based GPC is known best for its better mechanical and workability performances, whereas GGBS based
GPC gives excellent strength parameters. In such a case, practising engineers might need to have a preliminary decision
making upon the usage of those locally available alumino-silicate material(s) that suits for the mix-design purpose, structural
applications and site conditions. For any mix-design process of concrete composites, compressive strength is the prior criteria
that need to be satisfied. Predicting the minimum compressive strength that can be obtained, with the available ingredients
and the predefined mix design criteria, would help the practising engineers to make decisions on using those locally available
concreting ingredients in mix-design of GPC. In this paper, based on the application of AI tools, suitable predictive models
are needed to be developed with higher accuracy which would enhance the above-mentioned decision-making criteria to the
practising engineers in the field. It also facilitates various researchers on material EGC to select the concreting ingredients for
advanced materials research on EGC, thereby reducing the cost and time for experimental procedures.
Preparation of Database & Development of Predictive models
Based on the literature survey, it is clear that, among the SCTs, ANN and ANFIS perform greater in predicting the compressive
strength of concrete composites particularly when the mix-design influencing parameters are lesser. This paper tries to attempt
the usage of AI tools – ANN and ANFIS in developing the predictive models to anticipate the magnitude of compressive
strength of the material EGC.
1) Database: Initial database is required for training the predictive models and thereby validating the models to check the
accuracy of prediction. The database is collected from various research publications around the world. These researches are
based on PVA fibre-reinforced GPC with binding materials as Class F flyash and/or Metakaolin based Geopolymer paste (no

372 Technical Volume of 35th Indian Engineering Congress, December 18-20, 2020