Available online at www.sciencedirect.

com
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

ScienceDirect
ScienceDirect
Structuralonline
Available Integrity
atProcedia 00 (2019) 000–000
www.sciencedirect.com
Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000 www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
ScienceDirect
Procedia Structural Integrity 17 (2019) 914–923

ICSI 2019 The 3rd International Conference on Structural Integrity

ICSI 2019 The 3rd International Conference on Structural Integrity
Compressive
Compressive strength
strength of
of natural
natural hydraulic
hydraulic lime
lime mortars
mortars using
using soft
soft
computing techniques
computing techniques
Maria Apostolopoulouaa, Danial J. Armaghanibb, Asterios Bakolasaa, Maria G. Douvikacc,
Maria Apostolopoulou , Danial J. Armaghani , Asterios Bakolas , Maria G. Douvika ,
Antonia Moropouloua and Panagiotis G. Asterisc,1
Antonia Moropouloua and Panagiotis G. Asterisc,1
a
Laboratory of Materials Science and Engineering, School of Chemical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, 15780 Athens,
a
Laboratory of Materials Science and Engineering, School of Chemical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, 15780 Athens,
Greece
b
Centre of Tropical Geoengineering (GEOTROPIK), School of Civil Greece
Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310
b
Centre of Tropical Geoengineering (GEOTROPIK), School of CivilBahru,
Johor Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310
Malaysia
c Johor Bahru,
Computational Mechanics Laboratory, School of Pedagogical Malaysia
and Technological Education, Heraklion, GR 14121, Athens, Greece
c
Computational Mechanics Laboratory, School of Pedagogical and Technological Education, Heraklion, GR 14121, Athens, Greece

Abstract
Abstract
In recent years, natural hydraulic lime (NHL) mortars have gained increased attention from researchers, not only as restoration
In recent years,
materials natural hydraulic
for monuments lime (NHL)
and historical mortars
buildings, haveasgained
but also increased material
an eco-friendly attentionwhich
from researchers,
can be used not only astorestoration
as binder formulate
materials for monuments and historical buildings, but also as an eco-friendly material which can be used
mortars for contemporary structures. In the present study, an extended database related to NHL mortars is compiled, related as binder to formulate
to all
mortars
three NHLfor grades
contemporary
(NHL5,structures. In the present
NHL3.5, NHL2) and softstudy, an extended
computing database
techniques related
namely to NHL
artificial mortars
neural is compiled,
networks (ANN)related to all
are utilized
three
to NHL
reveal thegrades (NHL5,
influence of theNHL3.5,
mortar’sNHL2) and soft
mix design on computing
mechanicaltechniques
strength, asnamely
well asartificial
to predictneural networks (ANN)
the compressive are of
strength utilized
NHL
to reveal
mortar the influence
mixes. themortar’s
Influenceofofthe binder tomix design on
aggregate, mechanical
water to binderstrength, as wellaggregate
and maximum as to predict
sizethe
on compressive strength
the compressive of NHL
strength of a
mortar at different mortar ages is revealed, for the three grades of natural hydraulic lime, further highlighting aspects of of
mortar mixes. Influence of the binder to aggregate, water to binder and maximum aggregate size on the compressive strength thisa
mortar at different mortar ages is revealed, for the three
“new” material, which has been used as a binder since antiquity. grades of natural hydraulic lime, further highlighting aspects of this
“new” material, which has been used as a binder since antiquity.
© 2019
© 2019TheThe Authors. Published by Elsevier
B.V. B.V.
© 2019 TheAuthors.
Authors.Published
Publishedby Elsevier
by Elsevier B.V. organizers.
Peer-review under responsibility of the ICSI 2019 2019
Peer-review under responsibility of the ICSI organizers.
Peer-review under responsibility of the ICSI 2019 organizers.
Keywords: natural hydraulic lime, compressive strength, mortar mix, artificial neural networks,heuristic algorithms, monument protection, soft
Keywords: techniques
computing natural hydraulic lime, compressive strength, mortar mix, artificial neural networks,heuristic algorithms, monument protection, soft
computing techniques

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +30 210 2896922

* E-mail
Corresponding
address:author. Tel.: +30 210 2896922 ; asteris@aspete.gr
panagiotisasteris@gmail.com
E-mail address: panagiotisasteris@gmail.com ; asteris@aspete.gr
2452-3216 © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
2452-3216
Peer-review©under
2019responsibility
The Authors. of
Published
the ICSIby Elsevier
2019 B.V.
organizers.
Peer-review under responsibility of the ICSI 2019 organizers.

2452-3216  2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Peer-review under responsibility of the ICSI 2019 organizers.
10.1016/j.prostr.2019.08.122
 Maria Apostolopoulou et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 17 (2019) 914–923 915
2 Maria Apostolopoulou et al. / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000

1. Introduction

Natural hydraulic lime mortars have been applied for joining building elements of masonry structures since
antiquity (Lanas et al 2004, Maravelaki-Kalaitzaki et al 2003, and Zhang et al 2018). Natural hydraulic lime occurs
from the calcination and subsequent slaking of marly limestones (limestones with clay impurities, which after
calcination become reactive silicates and aluminates), as illustrated by Figueiredo et al (2016a) and discussed by
Pozo-Antonio (2015). It thus sets through both hydration and carbonation processes, leading to the formation of
hydraulic compounds and the formation of calcite, respectively. Due to the relatively low calcination temperatures
required, it is considered as an eco-friendly material in relation to modern binders, such as cement, as also pointed
out by Cho et al (2017) and Velosa and Cachim (2009); furthermore, during hardening, part of the CO2 emitted
through the limestone calcinations is consumed during the carbonation process, thus further lowering the total
environmental impact associated to the greenhouse effect gases.
Natural hydraulic lime mortars have also been used extensively in recent years for the restoration of historical
structures and much research has been conducted in recent years regarding natural hydraulic lime mortars. This is
mainly on account of their enhanced compatibility with the historical materials comprising the masonries, as
discussed by Faria and Silva 2019, Vyšvařil et al 2017, Isebaert et al 2016, Amenta et al 2017, and Silva et al 2015,
while the fact is that these mortars harden in damp conditions and underwater is an advantage and they present over
more commonly used aerial lime mortars, as stated by Figueiredo et al (2016a), Arizzi et al 2015 and Kalagri et al
2014. However, during the restoration of a historical building or monument, performance of the restoration materials
is also of paramount importance, as discussed by Apostolopoulou et al 2017 and 2018. This indicates that it is
crucial, not only to ensure compatibility in terms of chemical and physical characteristics, but also to ensure a
compatible, yet adequate level of mechanical strength. Furthermore, an adequate level of mechanical strength can
also allow for the use of this eco-friendly material, natural hydraulic lime, in new structures as well.
In 2010, the regulations regarding the classification of natural hydraulic limes into different categories (NHL5,
NHL3.5, NHL2) were updated resulting in a new version of the standard EN 459-1:2010 (CEN 2010). Thus, the
different categories are differentiated in a more substantiated manner than in previous years; however, the new
standard leaves room for improvement, as also proposed by Figueiredo et al (2016a,b). In particular, according to the
updated standard, natural hydraulic limes which provide at least 5MPa compressive strength at 28 days (tolerance
values:5-15MPa) and a Ca(OH)2 content ≥15% are classified as NHL5, natural hydraulic limes which provide at
least 3.5MPa compressive strength at 28 days (tolerance values:3.5-10MPa) and a Ca(OH)2 content ≥25% are
classified as NHL3.5, while natural hydraulic limes which provide at least 2MPa compressive strength at 28 days
(tolerance values:2-7MPa) and a Ca(OH)2 content ≥35% are classified as NHL2.
Although many researchers have been involved with the study of natural hydraulic lime mortars, the results of
each study is focused in a limited span of the range of mortar mix parameters. This is natural, as it is very difficult to
produce mortars covering the whole span of possible values for the mix parameters involved in the production of a
mortar and which influences the compressive strength values at different mortar specimen ages. Thus, the utilization
of soft computing techniques in order to enhance our understanding in relation to the effect of mortar mix parameters
on the compressive strength is highly alluring. The use of soft computing techniques for the prediction of the
compressive strength has already been the center of research for cement mortars, as can be seen in Akkurt et al 2003
and Eskandari-Naddaf and Kazemi 2017, among others, blended cement mortars, as illustrated by Saridemir 2009
and Topcu et al 2008 and concrete materials, as studied by Ozcan at al 2009, Bilim et al 2009 and Duan et al 2013.
In addition, the use of soft computing techniques has been highlighted in many studies in field of civil engineering
(Armaghani et al 2014, 2017, Abad et al 2018, Koopialipoor et al 2018, Pham et al 2017a,b,c&d, and Pham et al
2018a,b).
In the present study, a preliminary attempt is made to incorporate all available data from published research
related to natural hydraulic lime mortars into one database, and to reveal the influence of natural hydraulic lime
mortars’ mix parameters on the compressive strength as well as to predict the compressive strength of different
mortar mixes at different ages for different mix design parameter values, using soft computing techniques namely
artificial neural networks (ANNs).
916 Maria Apostolopoulou et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 17 (2019) 914–923
Maria Apostolopoulou et al. / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000 3

2. Research Significance

The compressive strength of hydraulic lime mortars is of high importance for their use as compatible restoration
mortars, as well as for their use in new constructions. As mortars are complex systems, their compressive strength at
different ages is dependent on the values of the mix parameters selected for their design. Although many researches
have been conducted studying the characteristics of different hydraulic lime mortars, it is difficult for one researcher
alone to examine all possible ranges of the mix mortar parameters. In addition, there is a nonlinear dependence of the
compressive strength on the mix parameters involved in the mortars’ design which the traditional approaches cannot
solve effectively. In this study, thus, we have used soft computing techniques namely ANNs, which are powerful in
exploring the complicated and nonlinear relationship of the data, to predict the compressive strength of hydraulic
lime mortars. This study might help in overcoming costly and time-consuming experiments.

3. Materials and Methods

3.1. Artificial Neural Networks

Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) are information-processing models that are configured to learn and perform
several tasks such as classification, prediction, and decision-making. A trained ANN maps a given input onto a
specific output, and therefore it is considered to be similar to a response surface method. The main advantage of a
trained ANN over conventional numerical analysis procedures (e.g., regression analysis) is that the results are more
reliable and can be produced with much less computational effort (Asteris et al. 2016, Hornik et al. 1989, Plevris and
Asteris 2014a, Plevris and Asteris 2014b, Plevris and Asteris 2015, Giovanis and Papadopoulos 2015).
The concept of an ANN is based on the concept of the biological neural network of the human brain (Fig. 1). The
basic building block of the ANN is the artificial neuron, which is a mathematical model trying to mimic the behavior
of the biological neuron. Information is passed into the artificial neuron as input and processed with a mathematical
function leading to an output that determines the behavior of the neuron (similar to fire-or-not situation for the
biological neuron). Before the information enters the neuron, it is weighted in order to approximate the random
nature of the biological neuron. A group of such neurons consists of an ANN in a manner similar to biological neural
networks. In order to set up an ANN, one needs to define: (i) the architecture of the ANN; (ii) the training algorithm,
which will be used for the ANN learning phase; and (iii) the mathematical functions describing the mathematical
model. The architecture or topology of the ANN describes the way the artificial neurons are organized in the group
and how information flows within the network. For example, if the neurons are organized in more than one layers,
then the network is called a multilayer ANN. Regarding the training phase of the ANN, it can be considered as a
function minimization problem, in which the optimum value of weights needs to be determined by minimizing an
error function.

Fig. 1. Schematic representation of a biological neuron

 Maria Apostolopoulou et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 17 (2019) 914–923 917
4 Maria Apostolopoulou et al. / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000

3.2. Natural hydraulic lime database

After extensive review of the published relevant literature, a database was compiled including all three types of
Natural Hydraulic Lime (NHL5, NHL3.5, NHL2). The mortar mix design parameters, selected in order to be used as
input parameters in the ANN models, and considered as the most crucial for the development of the compressive
strength, were maximum grain size of the sand used as aggregate (MDA), the age of the specimen (CT), the natural
hydraulic lime category (5, 3.5, 2) (MEP), the ratio by weight of binder (natural hydraulic lime) to aggregate (BS)
and the ratio by weight of water to binder (WB), while the compressive strength was selected as the output
parameter (CS). Care was taken to select research mostly published after 2010 when the standard for natural
hydraulic limes was updated. At this point of the research, only mortars produced with one type of hydraulic lime as
binder were taken into account (in contrast to blended mortars which contain a mix of different NHL types), while
none of the mortars included in the database contained any other additives, such as superplasticizer and pozzolans.
Mortars which were cured with standard curing were selected, in order to obliterate the influence of variable curing
conditions on the compressive strength of the produced mortars, to the extent possible.
The database at this point contains a total of 253 datasets, including, as aforementioned, all three categories of
natural hydraulic lime. Datasets related to NHL5 mortars amount to 160 in total and were selected from the
published research of Figueiredo al 2016b, Zhang et al 2018, Isebaert et al 2016, Kalagri et al 2014, Pozo-Antonio
2015, Amenta et al 2017, Lanas et al 2004, Barr et al 2015, Grist et al 2013, Silva et al 2014 and 2015. Compressive
strength for the NHL5 mortars ranged from 0.5 to 15.2 MPa (for all curing times). Datasets related to mortars
comprised with NHL3.5 amount to only 26, as most data related to non blended NHL3.5 mortars was either earlier
than 2010 or some mix parameters were not included in the relevant publications. The included NHL3.5 datasets
were selected from published research of Figueiredo al 2016b, Faria and Silva 2019, Arizzi et al 2015, Garijo et al
2018, Barr et al 2015 and Falchi et al 2015. Compressive strength for the NHL3.5 mortars ranged from 0.5 to 4.2
MPa (for all curing times). Datasets related to mortars comprised with NHL2 amount to 64 in total and were selected
from the published research data of Figueiredo et al 2016a, Figueiredo al 2016b, Vysvaril et al 2017, Zhang et al
2018, Pozo-Antonio 2015 and Barr et al 2015. Compressive strength for the NHL2 mortars ranged from 0.36-5.32
MPa.
It should be noted that at least to the knowledge of the authors, this is the first time that soft computing techniques
have been used to study the development of hydraulic lime mortars’ compressive strength. It is also worth noting
that the database (253 datasets) used is among the databases with the most datasets that have been used for the study
and simulation of building materials’ mechanical properties using soft computing techniques.

4. Results and Discussion

For the training of the ANN models the use of a large set of training function such as quasi-Newton, Resilient,
One-step secant, Gradient descent with momentum and adaptive learning rate and Levenberg-Marquardt back
propagation algorithms has been investigated. From all these algorithms, the best prediction for the non-linear
behavior of the mortar compressive strength is achieved, by a significant margin with respect to the rest, by the
Levenberg-Marquardt implemented by levmar (Lourakis 2005). This algorithm appears to be the fastest method for
training moderate-sized feedforward neural networks (up to several hundred weights) as well as non-linear problems.
It also has an efficient implementation in MATLAB® software, because the solution of the matrix equation is a
built-in function, so its attributes become even more pronounced in a MATLAB environment.
The normalization of data is a pre-processing phase which has been proved to be the most crucial step of any type
problem in the field of soft computing techniques such as the ANN techniques. In the present study, during the pre-
processing stage, the Min-Max (Delen et al. 2006) has been used. In particular, the seven input parameters (Table 1)
as well as the single output parameter have been normalized using the Min-Max normalization method. Namely, the
input and output parameters have been normalized in the range [0.10, 0.90]. Detailed and in depth works on
normalization techniques can be found in the published research of Asteris and Plevris 2017, Cavaleri et al. 2017,
Chen et al. 2019 and Asteris and Kolovos 2019.
918 Maria Apostolopoulou et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 17 (2019) 914–923
Maria Apostolopoulou et al. / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000 5

Table 1. Parameters and statistics of database

Variables Statistical Indexes
No
Name Symbol Type Unit Min Average Max STD
1 Max Diameter of Aggregates MDA mm 0.70 3.51 16.00 2.02
2 Curing Time CT days 7.00 93.12 360.00 103.31
3 Material Encoding Parameter 1 MEP1 - 0 0.64 1 0.48
4 Material Encoding Parameter 2 MEP2 Input - 0 0.11 1 0.31
5 Material Encoding Parameter 3 MEP3 - 0 0.26 1 0.44
6 Water-to-binder ratio (W/B) WB (w/w) 0.46 0.99 1.81 0.34
7 Binder-to-sand ratio (B/S) BS (w/w) 0.09 0.26 0.71 0.14
8 Compressive Strength CS Output MPa 0.36 3.76 15.20 2.76

In this work, a large number of different BPNN models have been developed and implemented. In particular, the
following four (4) combination scenarios were examined:
I. Two different types of encoding NHLs: in the once case, the type of natural hydraulic lime was
incorporated as one input parameter, assigning the number 5 for NHL5, the number 3.5 for NHL3.5 and
the number 2 for NHL2, while in the other case, the type of natural hydraulic lime was incorporated as
three different input parameters; therefore in the later case, when one type of hydraulic lime was added it
was assigned the number 1, while the other two input parameters related to the other two hydraulic lime
types were assigned with the value 0 (therefore: 1,0,0 for mortars containing NHL5, 0,1,0 for mortars
containing NHL3.5 and 0,0,1 for mortars containing NHL2),
II. Two different cases regarding the number of input parameters. Specifically, in the one case the
maximum grain size of the aggregate was taken into account, while in the other it was excluded,
III. Two different cases related to the architecture of the neural networks, one with one hidden layer and the
other with two hidden layers, and
IV. Two different cases related to whether the data has been normalized through the use of the MinMax
technique or not
The combination of the above four scenarios resulted in the examination of a total of 16 (=2^4) different cases of
neural networks.
The development and training of the ANNs occurs with a number of hidden layers ranging from 1 to 2 and with a
number of neurons ranging from 1 to 30 for each hidden layer. Each one of the ANNs is developed and trained for a
number of different activation functions, such as the Log-sigmoid transfer function (logsig), the Linear transfer
function (purelin) and the Hyperbolic tangent sigmoid transfer function (tansig) (Asteris et al. 2017, Cavaleri et al.
2017, Asteris et al. 2016, Psyllaki et al. 2018, Asteris et al. 2018, Nikoo et al. 2017, Nikoo et al. 2018, Nikoo et al.
2016, Asteris and Nikoo 2019).
In order to have a fair comparison of the various ANNs, the datasets used for their training are manually divided
by the user into training, validation and testing sets using appropriate indices to state whether the data belongs to the
training, validation or testing set. In the general case, the division of the datasets into the three groups is made
randomly.
The amount of neurons in each hidden layer, as well as the three different transfer functions, result in a high
number of neural networks for each of the 8 scenarios; thus these scenarios, for one hidden layer, correspond to 5400
neural network architectures, while for the case of two hidden layers the neural network architectures correspond to
486000. Therefore, the number of neural networks designed and trained amounted to a total of 3931200
(=8×5400+8×486000). Each one of these ANN models was trained over 152 data-points out of the total of 253 data-
points, (60%) of the total number) and the validation and testing of the trained ANN were performed with the
remaining 101 datasets. More specifically, 51 data-points (20%) were used for the validation of the trained ANN and
50 (20%) data-points were used for the testing.
The developed ANN models were sorted in a decreasing order based on the RMSE value. Based on this ranking,
the optimum ANN model for the prediction of the compressive strength is that of 7-12-25-1 that corresponds to the
 Maria Apostolopoulou et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 17 (2019) 914–923 919
6 Maria Apostolopoulou et al. / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000

twelfth case of trained and developed ANN model with two hidden layers, three encoding parameters, including the
maximum diameter of aggregates in the input parameters and with the use of normalization technique. Furthermore,
its transfer functions are the Log-sigmoid transfer function (logsig) for the first hidden layer, and the hyperbolic
tangent sigmoid transfer function (tansig) for the second hidden layer and the the hyperbolic tangent sigmoid transfer
function (tansig) for the output layer. In Table 2 the values of statistical indexes such as R, RMSE, MAPE and VAF
are presented.

Table 2. Statistical Indexes of the optimum NN model

Statistical Indexes
Case NN Architecture Datasets
R RMSE MAPE VAF
Training 0.9803 0.5641 0.1281 96.1041
12 7-12-25-1 All Data 0.9614 0.7632 0.2070 92.4218
Test Data 0.9455 0.7792 0.2071 89.3651

Figure 2 depicts the comparison of the exact experimental values with the predicted values of the optimum NN
model for the case of test data. It is clearly shown that the proposed optimum 7-12-25-1 NN reliably predict the
compressive strength of mortar materials.

Fig. 2. Experimental vs Predicted values of the mortar compressive strength for the case of Test datasets
920 Maria Apostolopoulou et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 17 (2019) 914–923
Maria Apostolopoulou et al. / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000 7

5. Conclusions

In the current study, the soft computing method namely ANN was developed for prediction of the compressive
strength of NHL mortar mixes. A database which was compiled containing experimental datasets (a total of 253
datasets) as found in relevant published and related to natural hydraulic lime mortars produced with different types
of natural hydraulic lime (NHL5, NHL3.5, NHL5) was used for training and validating the ANN model. Out of
these, the mortar mix design parameters, selected in order to be used as input parameters in the ANN, and considered
as the most crucial for the development of compressive strength, were maximum grain size of the sand used as
aggregate (MDA), the age of the specimen(CT), the natural hydraulic lime category (5, 3.5, 2) (MEP), the ratio by
weight of binder (natural hydraulic lime) to aggregate (BS) and the ratio by weight of water to binder (WB), while
compressive strength was selected as the output parameter (CS). The optimum results were obtained when the three
types of natural hydraulic lime were considered as three different input data parameters (assigning the number 1 to
the type of NHL used in the dataset and the number 0 to the other two types respectively), revealing that the number
of classification (2, 3.5 and 5) is not an adequate designation for this purpose. Furthermore, the ANN where the
aggregates’ maximum size was incorporated as an input parameter presented better results than the ANN where this
information was excluded, highlighting the importance of this mortar mix parameter. Thus, the optimum ANN
corresponded to a back-propagation neural network (BPNN) model with two hidden layers, incorporating all
examined mortar mix parameters as input parameters and three encoding parameters for NHL type, resulting an 7-
12-25-1 architecture, with the use of the normalization technique; its transfer functions are the Log-sigmoid transfer
function (logsig) for the first hidden layer, and the hyperbolic tangent sigmoid transfer function (tansig) for the
second hidden layer and the hyperbolic tangent sigmoid transfer function (tansig) for the output layer. The results of
this study show that ANNs can predict the compressive strength of natural hydraulic lime mortars in a satisfactory
manner, indicating that they can act as a tool for decision making when designing a natural hydraulic lime mortar.
However, it is also worth noting that, despite the satisfactory derived results, the proposed neural network should be
applied with caution. Despite the fact that the database used is the largest used in the relevant literature up to day, the
authors consider that this database needs to be embellished with further experimental data. To this end, it is within
the authors’ future plans to conduct further experiments related to these NHL mortars. In particular, the experiments
lacking are related to the cases of NH2 and NH3.5. This embellishment will allow the ANN to reveal the combined
influence of the different parameters on compressive strength to its full extent, thus revealing laws which govern the
development of compressive strength of natural hydraulic lime mortars.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr. Liborio Cavaleri, Prof. of Structural Engineering and Seismic Design at
Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Ambientale, Aerospaziale, dei Materiali, University of Palermo, Italy and Dr.
Binh Thai Pham, Prof. at University of Transport Technology, Hanoi, Vietnam, for their valuable comments and
discussions. The authors would also like to express his acknowledgement to graduate students Chrysoula Karamani,
Athanasia Skentou and Ioanna Zoumpoulaki for their assistance on the computational implementation of the ANN
models.

References

Abad, S.V.A.N.K., Yilmaz, M., Armaghani, D.J., Tugrul, A. (2018). Prediction of the durability of limestone
aggregates using computational techniques. Neural Computing and Applications, 29(2), 423-433.
Akkurt, S., Ozdemir, S., Tayfur, G., & Akyol, B. (2003). The use of GA–ANNs in the modelling of compressive
strength of cement mortar. Cement and concrete research, 33(7), 973-979.
Amenta, M., Karatasios, I., Maravelaki-Kalaitzaki, P., & Kilikoglou, V. (2017). The role of aggregate characteristics
on the performance optimization of high hydraulicity restoration mortars. Construction and Building Materials,
153, 527-534.
 Maria Apostolopoulou et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 17 (2019) 914–923 921
8 Maria Apostolopoulou et al. / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000

Apostolopoulou, M., Aggelakopoulou, E., Siouta, L., Bakolas, A., Douvika, M., Asteris, P. G., & Moropoulou, A.
(2017). A methodological approach for the selection of compatible and performable restoration mortars in
seismic hazard areas. Construction and Building Materials, 155, 1-14.
Apostolopoulou, M., Delegou, E. T., Alexakis, E., Kalofonou, M., Lampropoulos, K. C., Aggelakopoulou, E., ... &
Moropoulou, A. (2018). Study of the historical mortars of the Holy Aedicule as a basis for the design, application
and assessment of repair mortars: A multispectral approach applied on the Holy Aedicule. Construction and
Building Materials, 181, 618-637.
Arizzi, A., Martinez-Huerga, G., Sebastián Pardo, E., & Cultrone, G. (2015). Mineralogical, textural and physical-
mechanical study of hydraulic lime mortars cured under different moisture conditions.
Armaghani, D.J., Mohamad, E.T., Narayanasamy, M.S., Narita, N., Yagiz, S. (2017). Development of hybrid
intelligent models for predicting TBM penetration rate in hard rock condition. Tunnelling and Underground
Space Technology, 63, 29-43.
Armaghani, D.J., Hajihassani, M., Mohamad, E.T., Marto, A., Noorani, S.A. (2014). Blasting-induced flyrock and
ground vibration prediction through an expert artificial neural network based on particle swarm optimization.
Arabian Journal of Geosciences, 7(12), 5383-5396.
Asteris, P.G., Tsaris, A.K., Cavaleri, L., Repapis, C.C., Papalou, A., Di Trapani, F., Karypidis, D.F. (2016).
Prediction of the fundamental period of infilled RC frame structures using artificial neural networks,
Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience, 2016, 5104907.
Asteris, P.G., Roussis, P.C., Douvika, M.G. (2017). Feed-forward neural network prediction of the mechanical
properties of sandcrete materials, Sensors (Switzerland), 17(6), 1344.
Asteris, P.G., Plevris, V. (2017). Anisotropic masonry failure criterion using artificial neural networks. Neural
Comput. Appl. 28, 2207–2229.
Asteris, P.G., Kolovos, K.G., Douvika, M.G., Roinos, K. (2016). Prediction of self-compacting concrete strength
using artificial neural networks, European Journal of Environmental and Civil Engineering, 20, pp. s102-s122.
Asteris, P.G., Nozhati, S., Nikoo, M., Cavaleri, L., Nikoo, M. (2018). Krill herd algorithm-based neural network in
structural seismic reliability evaluation, Mech. Adv. Mater. Struct., doi:10.1080/15376494.2018.1430874.
Asteris, P.G., Nikoo, M. (2019). Artificial Bee Colony-Based Neural Network for the Prediction of the Fundamental
Period of Infilled Frame Structures, Neural Computing and Applications, DOI: 10.1007/s00521-018-03965-1,
(Article in Press).
Asteris, P.G., Kolovos, K.G. (2019). Self-compacting concrete strength prediction using surrogate models, Neural
Computing and Applications, 31, 409-424.
Barr, S., McCarter, W. J., & Suryanto, B. (2015). Bond-strength performance of hydraulic lime and natural cement
mortared sandstone masonry. Construction and Building Materials, 84, 128-135.
Bilim, C., Atiş, C. D., Tanyildizi, H., & Karahan, O. (2009). Predicting the compressive strength of ground
granulated blast furnace slag concrete using artificial neural network. Advances in Engineering Software, 40(5),
334-340.
Cavaleri, L., Chatzarakis, G.E., Di Trapani, F.D., Douvika, M.G., Roinos, K., Vaxevanidis, N.M., Asteris, P.G.
{2017). Modeling of surface roughness in electro-discharge machining using artificial neural networks, Advances
in Materials Research (South Korea). 6(2), pp. 169-184.
CEN. EN 459-1:2010. Building lime. Part 1: Definitions, specifications and conformity criteria. Brussels; 2010.
Chen, H., Asteris, P.G., Armaghani, D.J., Gordan, B. and Pham, B.T. (2019). Assessing dynamic conditions of the
retaining wall using two hybrid intelligent models, Applied Sciences, 2019, 9(6):1042
Cho, J. S., Moon, K. Y., Choi, M. K., Cho, K. H., Ahn, J. W., & Yeon, K. S. (2017). Performance improvement of
local Korean natural hydraulic lime-based mortar using inorganic by-products. Korean Journal of Chemical
Engineering, 34(5), 1385-1392.
Delen, D., Sharda, R., Bessonov, M. (2006). Identifying significant predictors of injury severity in traffic accidents
using a series of artificial neural networks, Accid. Anal. Prev., 38, 434–444.
Duan, Z. H., Kou, S. C., & Poon, C. S. (2013). Prediction of compressive strength of recycled aggregate concrete
using artificial neural networks. Construction and Building Materials, 40, 1200-1206.
Eskandari-Naddaf, H., & Kazemi, R. (2017). ANN prediction of cement mortar compressive strength, influence of
cement strength class. Construction and Building Materials, 138, 1-11.
922 Maria Apostolopoulou et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 17 (2019) 914–923
Maria Apostolopoulou et al. / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000 9

Falchi, L., Varin, C., Toscano, G., & Zendri, E. (2015). Statistical analysis of the physical properties and durability
of water-repellent mortars made with limestone cement, natural hydraulic lime and pozzolana-lime. Construction
and Building Materials, 78, 260-270.
Faria, P., Silva, V. (2019). Natural hydraulic lime mortars: influence of the aggregates. In Historic Mortars (pp. 185-
199). Springer, Cham.
Figueiredo, C, Lawrence, M, Ball, R. 2016a. Chemical and physical characterization of three NHL2 binders and the
relationship with the mortar properties. In L Villegas, I Lombillo, H Blanco and Y Boffil (eds), REHABEND
2016, Euro-Americal Congress: Construction Pathology, Rehabilitation Technology and Heritage Management
(6th REHABEND Congress)., C2.2.17, Santander, Spain.
Figueiredo, C, Lawrence, M, Ball, R. 2016b. Mechanical properties of standard and commonly formulated NH;
mortars used for retrofitting. In S Emmitt & K Adeyeye (eds), Proceedings of the Integrated Design Conference
ID@50: Building our Future, University of Bath, Bath, UK, International Conference on Integrated Design, Bath,
UK United Kingdom, 29/06/16
Figueiredo, C., Lawrence, M., & Ball, R. (2015). Chemical and physical characterisation of some NHL binders and
the correlation with the mechanical properties of conservation mortars. In Euromat 2015: European Congress and
Exhibition on Advanced Materials and Processes.
Garijo, L., Zhang, X., Ruiz, G., Ortega, J. J., & Wu, Z. (2018). The effects of dosage and production process on the
mechanical and physical properties of natural hydraulic lime mortars. Construction and Building Materials, 169,
325-334.
Giovanis, D.G., Papadopoulos, V. (2015). Spectral representation-based neural network assisted stochastic structural
mechanics, Engineering Structures, Volume 84:382–394.
Grist, E. R., Paine, K. A., Heath, A., Norman, J., & Pinder, H. (2013). Compressive strength development of binary
and ternary lime–pozzolan mortars. Materials & Design (1980-2015), 52, 514-523.
Hornik, K., Stinchcombe, M., White, H. (1989). Multilayer feedforward networks are universal approximators.
Neural Netw., 2, 359–366.
Isebaert, A., De Boever, W., Descamps, F., Dils, J., Dumon, M., De Schutter, G., Van Ranst, E., Cnudde, V., Van
Parys, L. (2016). Pore-related properties of natural hydraulic lime mortars: an experimental study. Materials and
Structures, 49(7), 2767-2780.
Kalagri, A., Karatasios, I., & Kilikoglou, V. (2014). The effect of aggregate size and type of binder on microstructure
and mechanical properties of NHL mortars. Construction and Building Materials, 53, 467-474.
Koopialipoor, M., Armaghani, D.J., Hedayat, A., Marto, A., Gordan, B. (2018). Applying various hybrid intelligent
systems to evaluate and predict slope stability under static and dynamic conditions. Soft Computing,
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00500-018-3253-3
Lanas, J., Bernal, J. P., Bello, M. A., & Galindo, J. A. (2004). Mechanical properties of natural hydraulic lime-based
mortars. Cement and concrete research, 34(12), 2191-2201.
Lourakis, M.I.A. (2005). A brief description of the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm Implemened by levmar, Hellas
(FORTH), Institute of Computer Science Foundation for Research and Technology,
http://www.ics.forth.gr/~lourakis/levmar/levmar.
Maravelaki-Kalaitzaki, P., Bakolas, A., & Moropoulou, A. (2003). Physico-chemical study of Cretan ancient
mortars. Cement and Concrete Research, 33(5), 651-661.
Nikoo, M., Ramezani, F., Hadzima-Nyarko, M., Nyarko, E.K., Nikoo, M. (2016). Flood-routing modeling with
neural network optimized by social-based algorithm, Natural Hazards, 82(1).
Nikoo, M., Sadowski, L., Khademi, F., Nikoo, M. (2017). Determination of Damage in Reinforced Concrete Frames
with Shear Walls Using Self-Organizing Feature Map, Applied Computational Intelligence and Soft Computing,
2017, 3508189.
Nikoo, M., Hadzima-Nyarko, M., Nyarko, K.E., Nikoo, M. (2018). Determining the Natural Frequency of
Cantilever Beams Using ANN and Heuristic Search, Applied Artificial Intelligence, 32(3), pp. 309-334.
Özcan, F., Atiş, C. D., Karahan, O., Uncuoğlu, E., & Tanyildizi, H. (2009). Comparison of artificial neural network
and fuzzy logic models for prediction of long-term compressive strength of silica fume concrete. Advances in
Engineering Software, 40(9), 856-863.
 Maria Apostolopoulou et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 17 (2019) 914–923 923
10 Maria Apostolopoulou et al. / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000

Pham, B.T., Khosravi, K. & Prakash, I., (2017a). Application and comparison of decision tree-based machine
learning methods in landside susceptibility assessment at pauri garhwal area, uttarakhand, india. Environmental
Processes, 4 (3), 711-730.
Pham, B.T., Bui, D.T., Prakash, I., Nguyen, L.H. & Dholakia, M., (2017b). A comparative study of sequential
minimal optimization-based support vector machines, vote feature intervals, and logistic regression in landslide
susceptibility assessment using gis. Environmental earth sciences, 76 (10), 371.
Pham, B.T., Bui, D.T., Pham, H.V., Le, H.Q., Prakash, I. & Dholakia, M., (2017c). Landslide hazard assessment
using random subspace fuzzy rules based classifier ensemble and probability analysis of rainfall data: A case
study at mu cang chai district, yen bai province (viet nam). Journal of the Indian Society of Remote Sensing, 45
(4), 673-683.
Pham, B.T. & Prakash, I., (2017d). Evaluation and comparison of logitboost ensemble, fisher’s linear discriminant
analysis, logistic regression and support vector machines methods for landslide susceptibility mapping. Geocarto
International, 1-18.
Pham, B.T., Shirzadi, A., Bui, D.T., Prakash, I. & Dholakia, M., (2018a). A hybrid machine learning ensemble
approach based on a radial basis function neural network and rotation forest for landslide susceptibility modeling:
A case study in the himalayan area, india. International Journal of Sediment Research, 33 (2), 157-170.
Pham, B.T. & Prakash, I., (2018b). Machine learning methods of kernel logistic regression and classification and
regression trees for landslide susceptibility assessment at part of himalayan area, india. Indian J. Sci. Technol, 11.
Plevris, V., Asteris, P.G. (2014a). Modeling of masonry failure surface under biaxial compressive stress using Neural
Networks, Construction and Building Materials, Volume 55, Pages 447-461.
Plevris, V., Asteris, P.G. (2014b). Modeling of masonry compressive failure using Neural Networks, OPT-i 2014 -
1st International Conference on Engineering and Applied Sciences Optimization, Proceedings, pp. 2843-2861.
Plevris, V., Asteris, P. (2015). Anisotropic failure criterion for brittle materials using Artificial Neural Networks,
COMPDYN 2015 - 5th ECCOMAS Thematic Conference on Computational Methods in Structural Dynamics
and Earthquake Engineering, pp. 2259-2272.
Pozo-Antonio, J. S. (2015). Evolution of mechanical properties and drying shrinkage in lime-based and lime
cement-based mortars with pure limestone aggregate. Construction and Building Materials, 77, 472-478.
Psyllaki, P., Stamatiou, K., Iliadis, I., Mourlas, A., Asteris, P., Vaxevanidis, N. (2018). Surface treatment of tool
steels against galling failure, MATEC Web of Conferences, 188,04024.
Sarıdemir, M. (2009). Predicting the compressive strength of mortars containing metakaolin by artificial neural
networks and fuzzy logic. Advances in Engineering Software, 40(9), 920-927.
Silva, B. A., Pinto, A. F., & Gomes, A. (2014). Influence of natural hydraulic lime content on the properties of aerial
lime-based mortars. Construction and Building Materials, 72, 208-218.
Silva, B. A., Pinto, A. F., & Gomes, A. (2015). Natural hydraulic lime versus cement for blended lime mortars for
restoration works. Construction and Building Materials, 94, 346-360.
Topçu, İ. B., Karakurt, C., & Sarıdemir, M. (2008). Predicting the strength development of cements produced with
different pozzolans by neural network and fuzzy logic. Materials & Design, 29(10), 1986-1991.
Velosa, A. L., & Cachim, P. B. (2009). Hydraulic-lime based concrete: Strength development using a pozzolanic
addition and different curing conditions. Construction and Building materials, 23(5), 2107-2111.
Vyšvařil, M., Žižlavský, T., Zimmermann, Š., & Bayer, P. (2017). Effect of Aggregate Type on Properties of Natural
Hydraulic Lime-Based Mortars. In Materials Science Forum (Vol. 908, pp. 35-39). Trans Tech Publications.
Zhang, D., Zhao, J., Wang, D., Xu, C., Zhai, M., & Ma, X. (2018). Comparative study on the properties of three
hydraulic lime mortar systems: Natural hydraulic lime mortar, cement-aerial lime-based mortar and slag-aerial
lime-based mortar. Construction and Building Materials, 186, 42-52.