Mandal et al.

AI in Civil Engineering (2024) 3:7 AI in Civil Engineering

https://doi.org/10.1007/s43503-024-00024-8

ORIGINAL ARTICLE Open Access

Study on the use of different machine

learning techniques for prediction of concrete
properties from their mixture proportions
with their deterministic and robust optimisation
Sumanta Mandal1, Amit Shiuly1* , Debasis Sau1, Achintya Kumar Mondal1 and Kaustav Sarkar1

Abstract
The construction industry relies so heavily on concrete that it’s crucial to precisely forecast and optimize the strength
and workability of concrete mixtures, while reducing costs as much as possible. For this objective, this study tries
to predict and optimize the compressive strength and workability (slump) of concrete by using deterministic
and robust optimization approaches, so as to determine the optimum concrete mixture proportions, while minimiz-
ing cost. Specifically, strength and slump were predicted based on concrete mixture proportions with five differ-
ent machine learning techniques—support vector machine (SVM), artificial neural network (ANN), fuzzy inference
system (FIS), adaptive fuzzy inference system (ANIS), and genetic expression programming (GEP), based on a dataset
comprising two hundred concrete mixtures, which has various levels of key ingredients, including cement, water,
fine aggregate, coarse aggregate, and size of coarse aggregate, along with their associated measures of strength
and workability. These ingredients were used as input parameters, while compressive strength and slump (represent-
ing workability) served as output parameters for each mix proportion. Experimental investigations were conducted
on fifteen distinct concrete mixes to validate the performance of the five networks, finding that ANFIS can yield
the best results both for training and validation. This study provides valuable insights for predicting concrete proper-
ties and optimizing concrete mixture proportions, thus helping to maximize strength and workability while minimiz-
ing costs.
Keywords Concrete mixture, Prediction, Machine learning techniques, Deterministic optimisation, Robust
optimisation

1 Introduction durability. While codal provisions can address the basics

Concrete plays a very crucial role in the construc-
tion industry. But traditional concrete mix designs rely
on codal provisions and trial batches in both labora-
tory and field settings to ensure compliance with speci-
fied requirements in terms of strength, workability, and
*Correspondence:
Amit Shiuly
amit.shiuly@jadavpuruniversity.in
1
Civil Engineering Department, Jadavpur University, Jadavpur,
Kolkata 700032, India
of concrete mixture designs, it should be noted that con-
crete is inherently heterogeneous, thus posing challenges
for predicting its diverse properties. Moreover, formu-
lating mixture proportions for optimal performance at
a minimal cost remains a complex task. Therefore, it is
critically important to predict and optimize concrete
mix proportions by leveraging the potential of various
machine learning and optimization tools, because such
tools can potentially simplify the prediction and optimi-
zation of concrete properties by establishing multidimen-
sional nonlinear relationships between raw materials and

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Mandal et al. AI in Civil Engineering (2024) 3:7
the desired performance, thus enhancing the efficiency of
construction processes.
Several researches have been conducted to predict
concrete properties by using various machine learn-
ing techniques. For instance, Oh et al. (1999) used ANN
to proportion concrete mixes. Rao (2012) successfully
used ANN to predict concrete compressive strength at
different binder ratios. A new database platform (Com-
pos) was developed by Chen et al. (2015), which imple-
mented stepwise multiple linear regression and BP ANN
approaches to identify correlations between concrete
properties and the proportion of concrete raw materials.
Mustapha and Mohamed (2017) proposed a Weighted
SVM Based on High-Performance Concrete Compres-
sive Strength Prediction, finding that the accuracy of the
proposed SVM was significantly better than other SVMs
for different evaluation measurements. Tafis and Sis-
tonen (2017) explored different machine learning meth-
ods for durability and service-life prediction of reinforced
concrete structures. Abuodeh et al. (2019) used ANN
for interpretation of ultra-high performance concrete’s
compressive strength. Marani et al. (2020) also predicted
such strength by using tabular generative adversarial
networks. Muliauwan (2020) used ANN, SVM and lin-
ear regression (LR) to predict concrete properties. In a
comparative study on ANN and ANFIS models, Arma-
ghani and Asteris (2021) estimated cement-based mor-
tar materials’ compressive strength. Pandey et al. (2021)
used multi-variable linear regression, SVM, Decision
Tree Regression and ANN to design concrete mixes,
with and without plasticiser of certain desired proper-
ties. When using XGBoost, MARS and SVM techniques
to determine the shear strength of RC concrete beams,
Hayder Riyadh Mohammed et al. (2022) observed that
MARS was more powerful than other algorithms. Ly
et al. (2021) successfully predicted the strength of rub-
ber concrete with ANN. Shariati et al. (2021) evaluated
the shear strength of tilted angular connectors (a kind of
applications in steel composites) by using ANN, ANFIS,
and ELM. Duan et al. (2021) utilized ICA, XGBoost,
SVR, ANN, and ANFIS to predict the recycled aggregate
concrete’s compressive strength. Nguyen et al. (2021a)
predicted the strength of concrete by using MLP, GBR,
XG Boost, and SVM. Ayaz et al. (2021) predicted the
compressive strength of geo-polymer concrete combined
with fly ash in the methods of ANN and ResNet. Feng
De-Cheng et al. (2020) adopted AdaBoost to assess con-
crete’s strength. Mishra et al. (2020) utilized SVM, ANN,
and ANFIS to measure the strength of unreinforced
bricks. Similarly, Naser et al. (2019) also used ANN
and ANFIS to identify the strength of asphalt rubber.
Moayedi et al. (2019) established the friction capacity of
driven piles in clay by ANFIS, ANN, SVM and GP, finding
Page 2 of 24
that ANFIS can deliver the best result. Naser (2019) pre-
dicted the service life of exterior painted surfaces by
using ANN. In order to determine the viscosity of asphalt
rubber, ANN and ANFIS were implemented by Specht
et al. (2014). In addition, Chou et al. (2013) assessed the
strength of concrete by utilizing ANN, CHAID, CART,
LR, l GENLIN and SVM, concluding that the combina-
tion of ANN and SVM can yielded the best result. Several
other machine learning applications are also available in
the field of geotechnical engineering for evaluating the
uniaxial compressive strength (Jahed Armaghani et al.,
2018), the bearing capacity of piles (W. Chen et al., 2020),
and the concrete-filled steel tube columns (Sarir et al.,
2021), among others.
Some researches have also been carried out to optimize
the concrete mixture design in different methodologies.
For example, Abbasi et al. (1987) designed an experi-
mental method to optimize concrete mixtures for a given
workability and compressive strength. Shilstone and
James (1990) suggested a quantitative technique for opti-
mizing the proportions of aggregate, while carrying out
some adjustments during the experiment. With locally
available ingredients, Kasperkiewicz (1994) applied
analytical techniques for concrete mix designs, attain-
ing an optimal composition of concrete at the lowest
cost. Chang (2001) proposed a densified mixture design
algorithm to yield a sort of optimum high-performance
concrete, which can deliver high workability and good
durability. Soudki et al. (2001) produced statistical analy-
sis results in full factorial experiments, aimed to optimize
a concrete mix proportion for hot climate conditions.
Nunes et al. (2006) explored self-compacting concrete
in a robust mix design methodology. Ahmad (2007) pro-
posed a laboratory trial procedure for an optimum design
of concrete mixes at the minimum cost of concrete. In
several analytical methods, such as ANN, nonlinear
programing, and Genetic Algorithm (GA), Yeh (2007)
obtained an optimum mixture of concrete composition
for required performance at the lowest cost. By adopting
GA, ANN and convex hull as an optimum technique, Lee
et al. (2009) determined the minimum cost of concrete
under a given strength requirement. Yeh (2009) opti-
mized concrete mixture proportions by using a flattened
simplex—Centroid mixture design as well as ANN. Self-
consolidated high-strength concrete was optimized by
Akalin et al. (2010) using a D-optimal design. By apply-
ing the Particle Swarm Optimisation (PSO) for design-
ing high-performance concrete mixtures, Xiaoyong
and Wendi (2011) presented an optimum approach to
designing concrete mixtures based on experimental and
orthogonal methods, while identifying the main fac-
tors influencing the compressive strength of concrete
in a mix proportion. Jayaram et al. (2010) demonstrated
Mandal et al. AI in Civil Engineering (2024) 3:7
opportunities for elitism-based PSO models to develop
high-volume concrete fly compounds and found that
when using PSO to design high-performance concrete
mixtures, the number of trial compounds, which have
desirable structures in the field, can be reduced. Ghia-
mat et al. (2019) proved that cost optimization with the
optimal combination of genetic operators can reduce the
construction cost and weight of the bridge superstructure
by 13%, mostly thanks to the reduction in the required
pre-stressing tendons. Hamed Naseri (2019) reported
that PSO is better than GA as a good solution for con-
crete mix proportions. In an investigation carried out by
Sobhani, PSO yielded faster and better results than GA.
Feng et al. (2021) used three metaheuristic ANFIS-based
algorithms, namely, PSO, ant colony optimization (ACO)
and differential evolution optimization (DEO), to predict
the super plasticiser demand of self-consolidated con-
crete mixtures.
Conventional reliability-based design optimisation
was carried out in dealing with optimization under
uncertainty by Abbasnia et al. (Cheng et al., 2017). Addi-
tionally, the robust optimisation has been successfully
implemented in stochastic mechanical systems over
recent years (Beyer & Sendhoff, 2007; Cheng et al., 2017).
Moulick et al. (2019a) presented an efficient robust opti-
mization procedure for concrete mixtures with rice husk
ash.
The above literature review identifies a gap in the cur-
rent research on concrete mix design and property
prediction: the absence of comprehensive research to
integrate multiple modern machine learning tools, such
as SVM, ANN, FIS, ANFIS, and GEP. Although many
studies have explored these techniques separately, there
is a notable lack of holistic investigations into their com-
bined effectiveness. Furthermore, the literature review
highlights a scarcity of research focusing on multi-objec-
tive deterministic and robust optimization strategies for
striking a balance among compressive strength, work-
ability, and cost minimization in concrete mixtures. Most
of the existing studies tend to concentrate on individual
aspects, rather than providing a comprehensive approach
to concrete-related technologies. Addressing these gaps
could significantly enhance the understanding and appli-
cation of advanced machine learning tools for optimizing
concrete properties.
In order to predict different concrete properties, this
study would adopt five machine learning techniques—
SVM, ANN, Fuzzy FIS, ANFIS and GEP. In addition, two
hundred data about concrete mixtures would be consid-
ered at various levels of key ingredients—cement, water,
fine aggregate, coarse aggregate, and size of coarse aggre-
gate, along with their compressive strength and slump
value. 170 of the 200 data would be used for training
Page 3 of 24
purpose, while the remaining 30 for testing. Such a divi-
sion of data is a common practice in the field of machine
learning, particularly in supervised learning techniques
for accurately training a network (Madhiarasan & Lou-
zazni, 2022). In addition, experiments would be con-
ducted in laboratory, given that 15 data about different
mix proportions and their strength and slump values
have been obtained. Thus, this approach could definitely
boost the reliability and generalizability of results, and
this is a feature different from that of other studies. Fur-
thermore, deterministic and robust optimisation would
be implemented at an optimum concrete mixture to
obtain the maximum compressive strength and slump at
the minimum cost.
2 Experiment procedure
2.1 Data collection and experiment program
Concrete mix properties were selected from the avail-
able literature for conducting this study (Abdelatif
et al., 2018). With a total of 1240 numbers in the data
set, data pre-processing is very important for this type
of research (Fan et al., 2015; Xiao & Fan, 2014). There-
fore, data reduction was carried out, as the row or col-
umn value regarding 28 days’ compressive strength and
workability discarding the missing values and mix design
containing additives. Thus, data reduction was made on
the basis of mix design having no additives and no value
of 28 days’ compressive strength as 714 and 293, respec-
tively. Afterwards, data scaling was implemented with
the normal distribution curve (Gaussian distribution). It
shall be noted that as an important concept in statistics,
the normal distribution forms the backbone of Machine
Learning. It yields a conclusion that approximately 99.7%
of data fall within three standard deviations of the mean.
The data were transformed from categorical data into
numerical data, and they were 200. Finally, the 200 num-
bers in the mix design dataset were used in this study.
The input data include: aggregate size, amount of Ordi-
nary Portland Cement (OPC), water, fine aggregate, and
coarse aggregate in kg per cubic meter; and the output
is 28 days’ compressive strength (in MPa) and slump (in
mm) corresponding to each mix proportion. The box-
plots of the mixture content, slump and compressive
strength are presented in Fig. 1.
For the purpose of validating the present prediction
methodology, an extensive experimental program was
conducted (Fig. 2), with 15 concrete trial mixes chosen
arbitrarily. The OPC cement was used in this experiment.
Crushed stone particles obtained from a local hill were
used as coarse aggregates, and local river sands were used
as fine aggregates. Both aggregates confirm to IS 383–
1970. Potable water was used for mixing the constituents
of all the tests. However, chemical admixtures were not
Mandal et al. AI in Civil Engineering (2024) 3:7 Page 4 of 24

1400
important predictive tools in civil engineering applica-
1200 tions (Chen et al., 2015; Jalal et al., 2021). These meth-
1000 ods’ effectiveness in prediction has been proved in many
Weight (Kg/m3)

800 aspects.
600
400
2.2.1 Support vector machine (SVM)
200
SVM, a supervised machine learning model, adopts clas-
0
Cement Water Fine Coarse sification algorithms for two-group classification prob-
Content Aggregate Aggregate lems. It was first introduced by Vapnik (Cortes & Vapnik,
1995; Shiuly et al., 2022a, 2022b). After given labelled
(a) Different concrete ingredients
training data for each category, an SVM model is able
55 to categorize them into new texts. Compared to some
Compressive Strength

50 newer algorithms, e.g., neural networks, SVM has two

main advantages: higher speed and better performance
45
(MPa)

with a limited number of samples (in thousands). This

40 makes SVM very suitable for text classification, where it’s
35 common to have access to a dataset of at most a couple
30
of thousands of tagged samples. SVM has been used in
many civil engineering applications; and in recent years,
25 it is often used to predict concrete’s compressive strength
(b) Compressive strength (Mishra et al., 2020; Mohammed & Ismail, 2022; Muliau-
wan et al., 2020; Nguyen et al., 2021a, 2021b; Shih et al.,
250 2015; Wang et al., 2014; Yu et al., 2018). The support vec-
tor regression, which is a variation of SVM, is also used
200
to build input–output models for concrete. SVM uses
an objective function, which drive the function estima-
Slump (mm)

150
100
50
(c)Slump
Fig.1 Box plot of different concrete ingredients compressive
strength and slump
used in the tests. A total of 15 × 3 = 45 cubes having a
dimension of 150 × 150 × 150 mm were casted for obtain-
ing the compressive strength of the concrete. After 24 h,
the cubes were removed from the mould, and then cured
for 28 days in a curing tank under normal temperatures.
Then, the compressive strength of the specimens was
measured in a standard compressive testing machine.
The average compressive strength of the three cube sam-
ples prepared from the same concrete mixture design
was marked as the compressive strength of that mixture.
Table 1 presents the average test results of 28-day com-
pressive strength for all 15 concrete mixtures, along with
each mixture per 1 cubic meter.
2.2 Different machine learning techniques
In order to predict the concrete mix proportions,
SVM, ANN, FIS, ANFIS and GEP were used, which are
tion process. When a nonlinear space is reached, a kernel
radial-based function (RBF) will be selected as the kernel
function for SVM, because it can provide better results
than other kernels.
This model underlies the functional relationship
between one or more independent variables and a
response variable:
y(A) = wT φ(A) + B (1)
where A Є R, y Є R, and φ(A): Rn is a process of mapping
to a higher dimensional feature space; w indicates the
weight; and B is a constant.
2.2.2 Artificial neural network (ann)
Artificial neuron is a computational model inspired by
natural neurons (Alam et al., 2020; Desai et al., 2008;
Madhiarasan & Louzazni, 2022; Sada & Ikpeseni, 2021;
Şahin & Erol, 2017; Shiuly et al., 2020, 2022a, 2022b;
Walczak & Cerpa, 2003): Natural neurons receive signals
through synapses found in the dendrites membrane of
neurons; when signals are found strong enough, neurons
would activate and release a signal to the axon; this sig-
nal can be sent to another synapse, which may activate
other neurons. ANN solves various problems in pattern
recognition, predictive performance, memory-related
tasks, etc. As it has the ability to automatically learn from
a given training pattern, ANN can solve map-related
Mandal et al. AI in Civil Engineering (2024) 3:7 Page 5 of 24

Fig. 2 Experiment performed in laboratory for validation

Table 1 Experimental mixture design data along with measured compressive strength and slump
Max agg size Cement O.P.C Water content Fine aggregate Coarse aggregate Compressive Slump (mm)
(Kg/m3) (Kg/m3) (Kg/m3) (Kg/m3) strength (MPa)

20 400 215 590 1195 47.2 110

20 380 175 675 1150 47.3 120
20 375 190 695 1190 45.5 110
40 375 180 665 1180 43.4 120
20 375 190 680 1205 43.9 150
40 375 180 630 1215 46.5 120
40 400 200 585 1235 40.1 125
20 385 195 685 1165 40.8 90
20 390 215 715 1125 50.4 120
40 350 160 720 1170 50.6 60
20 380 180 695 1135 50.3 200
20 360 170 748 1122 32.8 190
20 375 225 760 1130 33.2 160
40 385 180 635 1180 31.3 110
40 375 180 665 1180 36 120

problems by finding the approximate limitations of input
data associated with output data. This feature separates
it from other conventional specialist systems. An ANN
computing system is made up of many synthetic neu-
rons, which play the role of vital units and mimic a paral-
lel process of brain biology for responses. The behaviour
of ANN networks is influenced by the communica-
tion pattern of neurons, which determine the class of a
network as well. As mentioned above, training a network
to improve its performance is thought. In precise terms,
the structures and weights of network connections would
change iteratively, so as to minimize the errors that refer
to the entire node of the output layer.
A trained neural network acts as an analytical tool
for qualified predictions of results based on any sets of
input data which are not involved in the learning process
Mandal et al. AI in Civil Engineering (2024) 3:7
of the network. Its functions are practically simple and
easy, nevertheless correct and precise. A neural network
is composed of numerous mutually connected neurons
grouped in layers. The complicity of a network is deter-
mined by the number of layers. Besides the input (first)
and the output (last) layers, a network may have one or
a few hidden layers. The purpose of the input layer is to
accept data from the surroundings. Those data are pro-
cessed in the hidden layers and then sent into the output
layer. The final results from the network are the outputs
of the neurons from the last network layer, forming the
solution to the analyzed problem.
2.2.3 Fuzzy inference system (FIS)
Fuzzy theories can take intermediate values, such as high,
medium, low, very low and similar values. FIS is a set of
multi-valued logic, which permits intermediary values to
be defined between conventional assessments, e.g., true/
false, yes/no, high/low, etc. Ideas like very tall or very
fast can be expressed mathematically and processed by
computational systems, so as to apply a more human-like
thinking procedure in computers’ programming (Ber-
enji, 1992; Shiuly et al., 2022a, 2022b). The term “fuzzy”
was first presented by Zadeh (D’Urso & Gil, 2017) in his
research paper on fuzzy sets, which introduced a new
mathematical discipline, namely fuzzy logic, based on
the theory of fuzzy sets. The aim of the logic was to sup-
port the consideration and presentation of rough ideas by
fuzzy sets. The imprecision is to be understood as group-
ing certain set members into classes, with the boundaries
between them not sharply defined. The theory of fuzzy
sets is expected to become a novel methodology suitable
enough for helping formulate and solve complex prob-
lems in engineering and science, which are often difficult
to handle by using "precise" crisp logic, such as binary
logic, under which the variables can only be either true
or false. The theory of fuzzy sets allows the concept of
partial belongingness of an object or a variable in a fuzzy
set and, therefore, enables a gradual transition from full
membership to a totally non-membership. Thereby, in
fuzzy logic, an object or a variable within a domain may
partially belong to several fuzzy sets in the same domain
simultaneously. Thus, this theory provides a framework
for a multi-valued logic, which is essential for capturing
the vagueness in a natural linguistic description of any
system. Moreover, the underlying fuzzy logic incorpo-
rates a variety of rules with certain premises containing
fuzzy propositions, which are generally defined in lin-
guistic terms, such as low and high (temperature, pres-
sure, flow, frequency, voltage, etc.), or old, older and very
old (person, engine, sensor, measured value, etc.). These
related linguistic rules are of IF–THEN art.
Page 6 of 24
Successful prediction by models in various research in
the past indicated that fuzzy logic could be a useful mod-
elling tool for engineers and researchers in the area of
cement and concrete (Shiuly et al., 2022a, 2022b). Fuzzy
logic toolboxes have been used to predict the strength
and slump of concrete. The purpose of making this logic
is to decision making, understanding, problem solving,
planning etc.
2.2.4 Adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system (ANFIS)
Neuro-fuzzy modelling refers to applying various learn-
ing techniques developed in the neural network litera-
ture to FIS (Jang, 1993; Sada & Ikpeseni, 2021; Shiuly
et al., 2022a, 2022b). ANFIS, a hybrid neural network that
amalgamates fuzzy logic and neural networks, consists of
two main components: the consequent and the anteced-
ent, which work together to formulate some fuzzy rules
for shaping a network. Throughout the training process,
a hybrid optimization technique is employed to update
the parameters of each section. The ANFIS architecture
is organized into five layers: The first layer, known as the
fuzzification layer, would compute membership degrees
for each input and adjust antecedent parameters in a
gradient descent algorithm; subsequently, the rule layer,
constituting the second layer, would calculate the firing
strength of each rule; the third layer, referred to as the
normalization layer, would normalize the firing strengths
through min–max normalization; moving on to the
fourth layer—the defuzzification layer—marks the incep-
tion of the consequent part and updates its parameters
by using the least square error technique in the forward
path; finally, the fifth layer, called the output layer, would
aggregate the outputs from the fourth layer. In ANFIS,
the antecedent portion spans the initial three layers,
while the consequent portion covers the remaining lay-
ers. This study employed the concept of adaptive network
(which is a generalization of the common back-propaga-
tion neural network) to tackle the parameter-identifying
problem in FIS. An adaptive network is a multi-layered
feed-forward structure, with its overall output behav-
iour determined by the value of a collection of modifi-
able parameters. More specifically, the configuration of
an adaptive network is composed of a set of nodes con-
nected through directional links, and each node is a pro-
cessing unit to perform a static node function based on
the incoming signals, so as to generate a single node out-
put. Such a node function is a parameterized function,
because it has modifiable parameters. It shall be noted
that the links in an adaptive network only indicate the
flow direction of signals between nodes, with no weights
associated with these links. In this study, three ANFIS
models were developed to predict the concrete com-
pressive strength, slump, and dry density. In all the three
Mandal et al. AI in Civil Engineering (2024) 3:7
models, water, cement, fine aggregate and coarse aggre-
gate were used as input variables. All the three models
were developed by using a grid partition fuzzy interfer-
ence system, which adopted 3 linear membership func-
tions. It is noteworthy that ANN lacks the ability to make
informed decisions, while Fuzzy Logic is criticized for its
weakness in learning capabilities.
Neural network + FUZZY = ANFIS
As a neural network, it has strong generalization capa-
bility and high strength. The only limitation is very high
computational cost, due to complex structures; so it is
not suitable for a large amount of inputs.
2.2.5 Genetic expression programing (GEP)
In this method, the first human chromosomes are ini-
tially randomly generated by software (Bansal et al., 2022;
Shiuly, 2018; Shiuly et al., 2020, 2022a, 2022b). In the next
step, the chromosomes are transferred and the suitability
of the individual population is assessed. Then, with the
eligibility considered, individuals are selected randomly,
leaving a seed with new traits. In the new generation, the
same process is repeated: genetic predisposition, hostil-
ity, and reproduction through evolution. For a certain
number of generations, or before a specific solution is
reached, this process continues (Fig. 3).
It is based on the mechanism of natural selection and
natural genetics:
Fig. 3 Genetec Expression tree working flow chart
Page 7 of 24
a) Mainly focus on optimization to get better results.
b) Solve complex problems.
c) Follow the theory of “Survival of the fittest” (Darwin’s
theory).
In the early GA methods, the first human chromo-
somes are randomly produced by this software; then,
chromosomes are distributed, and the suitability of an
individual population is assessed; then, when consider-
ing suitability, individuals are selected randomly, leaving
a seed with new traits. In the new generation one finds
the same process—genetic predisposition, hostility, and
reproduction through evolution. For a certain number
of generations or until a specific solution is reached, this
process continues. In order to produce the compres-
sive strength, slump and dry density separately, such as
water work, cement, good amount, coarse, small plastic,
large plastic; GeneXpro Tools 5.0 (Ferreira, 2001) was
used in this study. In all cases, the 30 chromosomes, each
containing the three-dimensional genes, were used in
calculation.
2.3 Development of the optimisation scheme
In this study, two ANFIS models were developed to pre-
dict the concrete compressive strength and slump; and
coarse aggregate size, cement, water, fine aggregate, and
coarse aggregates were utilised as input variables, while
the values of compressive strength and slump were
used as output variables, as depicted in Fig. 4(a) and (b),
Mandal et al. AI in Civil Engineering (2024) 3:7 Page 8 of 24

Fig. 4 ANFIS network for predicting compressive strength and slump

Mandal et al. AI in Civil Engineering (2024) 3:7
respectively. All the models were developed in a grid par-
tition fuzzy interference system.
In this study, cement, coarse aggregate, fine aggre-
gate, water, and size of coarse aggregate were used as
input parameters of the fuzzification layer in ANFIS.
Furthermore, the membership degree of all the input
parameters are adjusted by using the gradient descent
algorithm as cement, water, coarse aggregate, size of
coarse aggregate, fine aggregate. The types of all mem-
bership functions were triangular. The initialization of
the membership function’s parameters involves a ran-
dom assignment, which uses cluster centres derived
from the K-means algorithm for input–output training
data. Subsequently, these parameters were fine-tuned
to ensure compliance with distinguishing ability con-
straints. In addition, ANFIS’ information includes:
Number of nodes: 15; Number of linear parameters:
4; Number of nonlinear parameters: 1; Total number
of parameters: 5; Number of training data pairs: 135;
Number of checking data pairs: 15; Number of fuzzy
rules: 2; Minimal training and testing for both RMSE
and R2: indicated in Sect. 3.6. The whole ANFIS model
was carried out in MATLAB’s tool box. The model’s
accuracy was measure by RMSE and MAE.
2.3.1 The deterministic optimization
The performance of an optimal design depends on
design parameters (z) and design variables (x) (Mou-
lick et al., 2019b). The design parameters refer to those
that cannot be controlled or are difficult and expensive
to control. The design variables refer to specific param-
eters that need to be optimized, so as to achieve the
intended performance. In this study, design variables
(x) include: size of coarse aggregate, amount of cement,
water, and fine aggregate and coarse aggregate in kg
per cubic meter of concrete; the design parameters (z)
include the cost of ingredients, compressive strength
and slump.
Deterministic optimization was made to obtain the
optimal design variables, which will minimize the cost, so
as to satisfy the required criteria of 28 days’ compressive
strength and slump (workability):
minimize f (x, z) : cost
subjected to g1 (x, z) : σct −σ (x, z) ≤ 0
(2)
g2 (x, z) : sct −s(x, z) ≤ 0
xiL ≤ xi ≤ xiU , i = 1, 2, ....., K .
where xiL and xiU indicate the lower and the upper bounds
of the ith design variable, respectively; σct,σ (x, z),sct and
s(x, z) are the target 28 days’ compressive strength, the
obtained 28 days compressive strength, the target slump,
and the obtained slump, respectively; σ (x, z) and s(x, z)
Page 9 of 24
are the implicit functions of [x z]. It shall be mentioned
that the deterministic optimization problem as presented
by Eq. (2) does not reflect the effect of uncertainty in [x
z]. However, the objective function and the constraints
are the function of [x z]. Thus, the uncertainty in [x z] is
expected to spread at the system level, thus inducing the
objective function and the constraints of the associated
optimization problem.
2.3.2 The robust optimization
2.3.2.1 Robustness of the objective function The robust-
ness of the objective function is generally measured in
terms of the dispersion of the performance function from
its mean value (Moulick et al., 2019b). The aim of a model
design is to attain the optimal performance as well as low
sensitivity of the performance function, with respect to
the variation in the design variables and design parame-
ters due to uncertainty. Thus, it is required to optimize the
objective function with the dispersion (standard deviation
for normal random parameters). Therefore, the robust
optimization problem can be modelled as a minimization
problem of the mean and standard deviation of the objec-
tive function, leading to a criterion of robust design opti-
misation problem, which can be expressed as:
Find x, to minimize [µf , σf ]. (3)
where µf and σf are the mean and the standard devia-
tion of the performance function, respectively. Gen-
erally, minimization of the mean and the standard
deviation of the performance is required, resulting in a
set of Pareto-optimal solution, as presented by Deb et al.
(2002). Applying the equation generated by GEP, a multi-
objective function was converted to an equivalent single-
objective function:
µ∗f +ασf σf∗ ;
φ(u) = (1 − α)µf 0≤α≤1 (4)
where φ(u) is a new objective function, called the desira-
bility function; parameter α acts as a weighting factor; µ∗f
and σf∗ are the optimal values of the mean and the stand-
ard deviation for α and equal to 0.0 and 1.0, respectively.
The maximum robustness would be attained when α
becomes 1.0. Suppose u = [x z]. By using the first-order
perturbation approach, the mean and the standard devia-
tion of the objective function can be acquired for normal
random parameters (Doltsinis et al., 2005), as expressed
below:
N  2
2
 ∂f1 
µf1 (u) ≈ f1 (u), σf1 ≈ σu2i (5)
∂ui ui
i=1
Mandal et al. AI in Civil Engineering (2024) 3:7 Page 10 of 24

Similarly, in an Uncertain but Bounded system, by Eq. (6). Hence, considering the mixed system of random
using the worst case propagation concept, the nominal and unconstrained but bounded parameters, the equiva-
value f (i.e., the mean in the normal random case) and lent mean µgj and equivalent standard deviation σgj are
the dispersion Δf (i.e., the standard deviation in the nor- measured as:
mal random case) can be presented as below (Lee & Perk,  
2001): µg = gj µxR , µzB , x R , zB ; (9a)
N  
    � �2 � �2
(6) N N
� �
f 2 = f (u) �f2 = ∂f ∂ui �ui � ∂gj � ∂g j

σg2j = 2 2
� �
i=1
� σxRi + � σzRi
 ∂xR �ui ∂zR �ui 
i=1 i=1
where u denotes the nominal value of u, i.e.  � � 
N � N �
u = (uL + uU)/2. Finally, for a mixed system of Uncertain
�
� � ∂gj � � ∂gj
� 
� �xB + �z ,
� �
+
but Bounded and random parameters, the resulting nom- B
� � �
� ∂x � i � ∂zB � i 

i=1 Bi ui i=1 i ui
inal value and the dispersion of the objective function
(9b)
can be obtained:
In Eq. (9a, b), xR, xB, zR and zB denote the random
µf = µf1 + f 2 σf = σf1 + �f2 (7) design variables, the Uncertain but Bounded design vari-
able, the random design parameter, and the Uncertain
The formulation above is effective for relatively low lev- but Bounded design parameter, respectively. A close
els of uncertainty (up to 25%). However, to deal with non- observation of Eq. (9a) can reveal that the equivalent
normal variables, the Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) mean of the constraint function is determined by the
approach is proper for estimating the mean and the mean values of probabilistic parameters and the nominal
standard deviation values. values of Uncertain but Bounded parameters. Likewise,
the first part of Eq. (9b) reveals a treatment to probabil-
2.3.2.2 Robustness of the constraints Due to uncertainty istic parameters, and the second part of Eq. (9b) depicts
in [u], the optimal solution found with deterministic con- the consideration of Uncertain but Bounded parameters
straint functions may vary. However, the final intended both for the design variables and the design parameters.
performance obtained by that type of deterministic In the first part, the first-order perturbation approach for
restraints may become infeasible in the presence of uncer- probabilistic parameters Eq. (5) was used, while the sec-
tainty in u, as presented by Cheng et al. (2017). To address ond part used the worst-case propagation principle for
the viability of constraints under uncertainty, Venanzi Uncertain but Bounded parameters Eq. (6).
et al. (2015) proposed an overall probabilistic possibility
formulation for the jth constraint gj: 2.3.2.3 The robust optimisation formulation By com-
bining Eqs. (4) and (8a, b) to meet the requirements of
P [gj (u) ≤ 0] ≥ Poj , j = 1, ........., J (8a)
the performance and the constraint feasibility under
where ­Poj is the intended probability for satisfying the uncertainty in u, the Robust Optimisation problem can
jth constraint. In order to decrease the involvement of be expressed as:
probabilistic feasibility computation, assuming that ­gj(u) µf σf
is normally distributed, the probabilistic feasibility of the minimize: φ(u) = (1 − α) +α ∗, 0≤α≤1
µ∗f σf
restraint can be presented as below (Lee & Park, 2001):
subjected to: µgj + kj σgj ≤ 0 j = 1, 2, ......, J
µgj + kj σgj ≤ 0. (8b)
xiL ≤ xi ≤ xiU , i = 1, 2......, K .
where µgj and σgj are the mean and the standard deviation (10)
of gj , respectively, computed by the first-order perturba- It shall be mentioned that the individual gradient of the
tion approach (see Eq. (5)). Further, the designer-speci- performance function and the restraints need to be eval-
fied penalty factor, k­ j, is used to improve the feasibility of uated at each updated design point during the optimiza-
the jth restraint, and it can be found from kj = �−1 (Poj ), tion process.
where �−1 (.) is the representation of an inversion of the
cumulative density function for the standard normal dis-
tribution. In other words, k­ j signifies the target reliability 2.4 Performance of the machine learning (ML) techniques
index. However, for Uncertain but Bounded parameters, by statistical analysis
the dispersion of constraint can be found in the worst- For any predictive relationship, Root Mean Square Error
case uncertainty propagation approach, as represented in (RMSE) depicts how far the predicted values lie from the
Mandal et al. AI in Civil Engineering (2024) 3:7
actual ones. RMSE can be mathematically computed as
follows:

n 2
i=1 (Ai − Pi ) (11)
RMSE =
n
where Ai = actual value of ith term, Pi = corresponding
predicted value, and n = number of data points.
Mean absolute error ( MAE ) can be denoted as:
n ing enough data to train a model efficiently and retain-
|Ai − Pi |
MAE = i (12)
n accurately. Specifically, the rationale behind this proposal
Coefficient of determination ( R2 ) can be presented as:
RSS
R2 = 1 − (13)
TSS
where RSS represents the sum of squared residuals, i.e.,
n perform better.
i=1 (Ai − Pi ) , and TSS represents the total sum of
 2
n 2
squares, i.e., i=1 (Ai − Ai ) .
In addition, Chi-Square (χ 2 ) test, a statistical test, can
help determine the level of confidence of the proposed
relationships. It can be computed as:
n which will result in poor generalization.
 (Ai − Pi )2
χ2 = (14)
i=1
Pi
where χ2 indicates the Chi-Square value. After computing
Chi-Square value, the degree of freedom was determined,
which denotes the number of categories reduced by the
number of parameters of the fitted distribution. The χ2 of
the specific confidence level was compared with the criti-
cal value from χ2 distribution of specific degrees of free-
dom. Finally, the null hypothesis ­(H0), which signifies that
there is no difference between the expected and observed
values, can be accepted if χ2 value does not go beyond the
critical value of a certain confidence level. However, the
null hypothesis was rejected; and an alternative hypoth-
esis ­(H1), which indicates the difference between the
observed and expected values, can be accepted if χ2 value
is bigger than the critical value of a certain confidence
level.
3 Results and discussion
In this study, two hundred numbers of data about con-
crete mixtures were explored by changing the levels of
key ingredients—size of coarse aggregate, cement, water,
fine aggregate, and coarse aggregate, along with their
compressive strength and slump value. 170 numbers of
data randomly chosen from them were used for train-
ing purpose, while the rest 30 for testing. In addition,
Page 11 of 24
experiments were conducted to measure 15 numbers of
different mix proportions, and their strength and slump
values were obtained.
The rationale behind dividing a data set into 85% for
training and 15% for testing is a common practice in
the field of machine learning, particularly in supervised
learning techniques (Madhiarasan & Louzazni, 2022).
This division is often known as the “train-test split”,
which is mainly aimed to strike a balance between hav-
ing adequate data to determine the model’s performance
is:
Sufficient Training Data: If a model is trained more,
it can learn better patterns. Thus, by assigning 85% of a
data set for training, the model would have admittance to
a sufficient amount of information to learn from, so it can
Generalization: The primary motive of machine learn-
ing techniques is to create a model that can be general-
ized well to new, unseen data. If a large amount of data
are used for testing (e.g., 50% or more), the model may
not have enough data to learn from during training,
Adequate Testing: Assigning 15% of a data set for test-
ing permits for a substantial amount of data to determine
a model’s performance accurately. With too few test data
(e.g., 5% or less), the evaluation result might not well
illustrate a model’s ability to perform on new data.
However, regarding the specific splitting percentages
of 85% for training and 15% for testing, there is in fact
no strict rule to dictate the exact percentages. The split-
ting may vary, depending on such factors as dataset’s size,
question’s complexity, and the like. In practice, the divi-
sion is often in the range of 70%–90% for training and
10%–30% for testing. A common practise is the 80–20
split; however, 85–15 is also feasible. It’s important to
note that in addition to the train-test splitting, there is
a third type of data in division, known as the validation
set, which is used during the model training process to
fine-tune hyper parameters and restrict the occurrence
of over-fitting. It shall be mentioned that the fifteen sets
of validation data is generated in laboratory separately
in the laboratory. Ultimately, the choice of data splitting
should be made carefully on the basis of the nature of a
certain data set, the amount of data and the objectives of
machine learning techniques. Joseph and Roshan (2022)
have also opined the same logic for splitting data sets. In
addition, Nguyen et al. (2021b) has demonstrated that
data slitting would not affect the prediction results too
much.
Mandal et al. AI in Civil Engineering (2024) 3:7 Page 12 of 24

3.1 Support vector machine (SVM) 3.3 Fuzzy inference system (FIS)

In this study, the coarse Gaussian Kernel function was Successful predictions by FIS models in the existing
used for SVM. Prediction Speed was 5200 obs/s and research indicate that fuzzy logic could be a useful mod-
Training time was 1.1814s. The whole process was car- elling tool for engineers and researchers in the area of
ried out in Matlab Toolbox. cement and concrete. This study also tried to predict the
strength and slump of concrete by using FIS toolboxes.
3.2 Artificial neural network (ANN) Specifically, coarse aggregate size, amount of cement,
In this study, two ANN networks were used for predict- water, fine aggregate, and coarse aggregate were used as
ing the compressive strength and slump. Each network the input variables, while the strength and slump were
consisted of five input parameters, namely coarse aggre- used as the output variables in the two networks of FIS.
gate size, cement, sand, coarse aggregates, and water. The 15 Membership functions for input and output param-
output parameters for the three networks are 28 days’ eters were used for fuzzy modelling, and the type of
compressive strength and slump. The MATLAB ANN membership functions was chosen as "trimf" (triangular
toolbox (Demuth & Beale, 2002) was used to perform membership function) (Fig. 6).
experiments. To search for the most appropriate network
for a given set of training data, trial methods and errors 3.4 Genetic expression programing (GEP)
were used. In this study, the most efficient network was To assess whether the compressive strength, slump and
selected with a correlation coefficient (R), whose value dry density were a function of coarse aggregate size,
varies from − 1 to + 1. R close to 1 or − 1 means a strong cement, sand, and coarse aggregates, GeneXpro Tools
positive or negative relationship, respectively; while 4.0 (www.​genex​proto​ols.​soft1​12.​com/) were adopted
R close to 0 means no relationship. In this study, Mean in this study. In all cases, the 30 number chromosomes,
Square Error (MSE) was used as the performance func- each containing the three-dimensional genes of the head
tion. A trial and error procedure was adopted to select size (i.e., eight), were used in the calculation. “Addition”
the best two networks. Tables 2 and 3 show the trial and was used as a link function to predict the compressive
error procedure adopted to select the finest network for strength and slump. For the maximum correlation coef-
estimating the compressing strength and slump, respec- ficient obtained to measure the strength, the slump was
tively. The trial and error procedure was conducted man- 96,565 and 122,349 iterations, respectively. In both cases,
ually. The finest network for predicting the compressive the number of genes was 3. The trees of the genetic algo-
strength and slump are presented in Fig. 5(a) and (b), rithm producing a compressive strength and slump are
respectively, in the pictorial form. It can be obviously presented in Fig. 7a and b. The compressive strength and
noted that the ANN models can simultaneously predict slump equations are presented in Eqs. 11 and 12, respec-
the strength and slump, thus eliminating the need to tively, where d(1), d(2), d(3), d(4) and d(5) indicate the
develop separate models. However, it yielded a poor R size of coarse aggregate, amount of cement, water, fine
value, which is not desirable. aggregate and coarse aggregate, respectively. These two
equations are very useful in predicting the above-men-
tioned features of concrete. In addition, they can be used
as a basis for the optimisation process.
� � ��
� � � � 3.87863402806583
y(1) = (d(2) − d(4)) + d(2) ∗ (−46.3750570834068) − d(1) ∗
((d(2) ∗ 10.8301795938042)
� �  
(d(2) − d(1)) − d(3) (d(1) − (−16.1558986905887))
+ � � − � �  (15)
d(4) d(5)
d(3) d(3)
�� � �
d(2)
+ ∗ d(1)
((d(3) − d(2)) ∗ (−7.89030981708951)) − (d(2) − (−31.3645369854215))
Table 2 Trial used to find finest network in ANN for predicting compressive strength
Trial Neurons R (Training) R (validation) Test R(all) Training function Transfer function No of layer Performance Adapting Epoch
Mandal et al. AI in Civil Engineering

function learning
function

1 4 0.5755 0.54304 0.52424 0.56123 TRAINLM TANSIG 2 MSE LEARNGDM 18

2 5 0.53843 0.57408 0.52499 0.54408 TRAINLM TANSIG 2 MSE LEARNGDM 15
(2024) 3:7

3 6 0.61333 0.55849 0.53889 0.59166 TRAINLM TANSIG 2 MSE LEARNGDM 21

4 7 0.53318 0.53458 0.47466 0.52014 TRAINLM TANSIG 2 MSE LEARNGDM 10
5 16 0.63021 0.36438 0.32553 0.54215 TRAINLM TANSIG 2 MSE LEARNGDM 17
6 9 0.36193 0.41979 0.47102 0.38749 TRAINLM TANSIG 2 MSE LEARNGDM 7
7 10 0.58997 0.35712 0.36777 0.52939 TRAINLM TANSIG 2 MSE LEARNGDM 12
8 11 0.46379 0.39542 0.39557 0.44109 TRAINLM TANSIG 2 MSE LEARNGDM 14
9 11 0.58801 0.49513 0.38029 0.54021 TRAINLM TANSIG 3 MSE LEARNGDM 28
10 11 0.51522 0.5344 0.08594 0.460921 TRAINLM TANSIG 4 MSE LEARNGDM 13
11 8 0.5662 0.33933 0.49892 0.52059 TRAINLM TANSIG 3 MSE LEARNGDM 15
12 8 0.30836 0.49761 0.38569 0.33004 TRAINLM TANSIG 4 MSE LEARNGDM 8
13 8 0.59536 0.56019 0.56091 0.58133 TRAINLM TANSIG 2 MSE LEARNGD 33
14 8 0.55445 0.52395 0.43916 0.5325 TRAINLM TANSIG 2 MSEREG LEARNGDM 11
15 8 0.6269 0.50297 0.42546 0.57966 TRAINLM TANSIG 2 MSEREG LEARNGD 23
16 9 0.76117 0.40788 0.33172 0.38736 TRAINLM TANSIG 2 MSE LEARNGD 11
17 9 0.57784 0.65355 0.52334 0.57188 TRAINLM TANSIG 2 MSEREG LEARNGD 22
18 8 0.61866 0.4632 0.59067 0.59179 TRAINLM LOGSIG 2 MSE LEARNGDM 26
19 8 0.42499 0.48084 0.53431 0.45179 TRAINLM PURELIN 2 MSE LEARNGDM 12
20 9 0.53121 0.54093 0.57889 0.5363 TRAINLM LOGSIG 2 MSE LEARNGDM 13
21 14 0.64298 0.42538 0.40738 0.57413 TRAINLM TANSIG 2 MSE LEARNGDM 15
22 10 0.8801 0.74246 0.837672 0.61814 TRAINLM TANSIG 2 MSE LEARNGDM 16
Page 13 of 24
 Mandal et al. AI in Civil Engineering

Table 3 Trial used to find finest network in ANN for predicting slump
(2024) 3:7

Trial Neurons R(Training) R(validation) Test(R) R(all) Training function Transfer function No of layer Function Adapting Epoch
learning function

1 4 0.68378 0.36291 0.48221 0.46763 TRAINLM TANSIG 2 MSE LEARNGDM 13

2 5 0.54357 0.58904 0.25103 0.36543 TRAINLM TANSIG 2 MSE LEARNGDM 8
3 6 0.72322 0.48841 0.47556 0.50573 TRAINLM TANSIG 2 MSE LEARNGDM 23
4 7 0.69716 0.32346 0.47662 0.46616 TRAINLM TANSIG 2 MSE LEARNGDM 10
5 8 0.70815 0.20995 0.51324 0.46457 TRAINLM TANSIG 2 MSE LEARNGDM 9
6 9 0.66744 0.39786 0.39427 0.44039 TRAINLM TANSIG 2 MSE LEARNGDM 9
7 10 0.86702 0.48147 0.2485 0.56917 TRAINLM TANSIG 2 MSE LEARNGDM 14
8 11 0.85374 0.36257 0.30015 0.5678 TRAINLM TANSIG 2 MSE LEARNGDM 18
9 12 0.86702 0.48147 0.2485 0.56917 TRAINLM TANSIG 2 MSE LEARNGDM 10
10 12 0.88207 0.69505 0.60804 0.71696 TRAINLM TANSIG 2 MSE LEARNGDM 17
11 12 0.82726 0.30682 0.25757 0.58771 TRAINLM LOGSIG 2 MSE LEARNGDM 22
12 12 0.63342 0.2598 0.04171 0.3323 TRAINLM PURELIN 2 MSE LEARNGDM 8
Page 14 of 24
Mandal et al. AI in Civil Engineering (2024) 3:7 Page 15 of 24

aggregate, the strength and workability would increase

(Figs. 9, 10).

3.5 Comparative analysis of the machine learning

Fig. 5 a Network used in ANN for predicting compressive strength. b
Network used in ANN for predicting slump
techniques used
The actual versus predicted curves for training and vali-
dation are presented in Figs. 11 and 12, respectively.
Figure 13a depicts the RMSE values of training for the
compressive strength and slump. Figure 13b depicts
the RMSE for testing the compressive strength and
slump. Figure 13c illustrates the MAE for the compres-
sive strength and slump in the case of training data set.
Figure 13d shows the MAE for the same validation data-
set. Figure 13e and f demonstrate the R ­ 2 value obtained
for training and testing, respectively. Furthermore, Chi
square value are plotted in Fig. 13g and h for testing and
validation, respectively.
It shall be noticed that the degrees of freedom for the
30 numbers of the training data set and the 15 numbers
of the validation data set are 29 and 14, respectively.
Thus, at the 95% level of confidence, the Chi square val-
ues are 42.557 and 23.685 for testing and validation,
respectively. Figure 13(g) demonstrates that for the test-
ing value, the compressive strength obtained by all five
methods reached the 95% confidence level. However, the

 � � 
� �  (−11.0172670250786) 
((0.450301792461842∗d(5))∗7.89544358653523) 2.18198406609944
y(2) = ∗ 
7.89544358653523  d(2) 
 � � 
d(2)
((d(4) + d(4)) + d(5)) − (−2.63698393180232)
+ � �
((−21.2197122639063) − d(2)) − (d(3)∗(−2.63698393180232)))
(16)
�� � � ��
(d(5) + d(5)) (−10.3960394115875)
+ + (−10.3960394115875) + + (−10.3960394115875)
d(1) d(1)
 �� � � � 
d(1) �
d(5) ∗d(4) + (−6.20188909573656) + d(1)
+ � � 
d(5)
(d(4)+d(4))

The partial dependence plot is presented in Fig. 8. It
can be observed that with the increase of cement, the
compressive strength and slump would increase rapidly.
However, with increased water, the compressive strength
would decrease and the workability would increase.
Furthermore, with increased sand, both the strength
and workability would decrease; with increased coarse
slump value fails to achieve the same level in all other five
methods. Nevertheless, Fig. 13(h) corroborates that both
strength and slump values successfully achieved the 95%
confidence level for the validation data set.
In summary, all the results above clearly signify that ANFIS
yielded the best results among all the five methods. Obvi-
ously, ANFIS is a type of adaptive network, which includes
Mandal et al. AI in Civil Engineering (2024) 3:7
Fig. 6 Steps of FIS network used for predicting compressive strength and slump
both ANN and FIS. As a supervised learning algorithm,
ANN uses a historical dataset for forecasting the future val-
ues. On the other hand, in FIS, the control signal is produced
from firing the rule base. Thus, ANFIS can be used most suc-
cessfully in predicting the concrete compressive strength and
slump with the available data. However, GEP generates equa-
tions that are very much helpful for others to predict con-
crete’s properties; and the generated equations can be used
as a basis equation for the optimisation process.
3.6 Results after optimisation
In order to obtain an objective function in this present
process for performing optimisation, which estimates
Page 16 of 24
compressive strength as a function of aggregate size,
cement, water, fine aggregate and coarse aggregate, gen-
erated GEP Eqs. 11, 12 has been used which is described
in previous section. Another objective function, which
predicts the cost of mixture, was constructed based on
the cost of materials taken from the US market, as seen
in Eq. 13. The cost of cement, sand coarse aggregate and
water per kg are 0.124, 0.006, 0.0075 and 0.000013 US
dollars, respectively.
y(3) = 0.124 ∗ d(2) + 0.006 ∗ d(3)
(17)
+ 0.0075 ∗ d(4) + 0.000013 ∗ d(5)
Mandal et al. AI in Civil Engineering (2024) 3:7 Page 17 of 24

Fig. 7 a Generated GEP tree for prediction of compressive strength. b Generated GEP tree for prediction of slump
Mandal et al. AI in Civil Engineering (2024) 3:7 Page 18 of 24

65 65

Compressive strength

Compressive strength
60 60
55 55
(MPa)

(MPa)
50 50
45 45
40 40
35 35
325 375 425 475 200 250 300
Cement O.P.C (Kg/m3) Water (Kg/m3)

65 65
Compressive strength

Compressive strength
60 60
55 55
(MPa)

(MPa)
50 50
45 45
40 40
35 35
475 575 675 775 700 1200 1700
Sand (Kg/m3) CA (Kg/m3)

200 200
175 175
Slump (mm)

Slump (mm)

150
150
125
125
100
75 100
50 75
325 375 425 475 200 220 240 260 280 300
Cement O.P.C (Kg/m3) Water (Kg/m3)

200 200
175 175
Slump (mm)

Slump (mm)

150
150
125
125
100
100 75
75 50
475 575 675 775 700 1200 1700
Sand (Kg/m3) CA (Kg/m3)

Fig. 8 The partial dependence plot of strength and slump from GEP
Mandal et al. AI in Civil Engineering (2024) 3:7 Page 19 of 24

50 250
Predicted Compressive strength

40 200

Predicted Slump (mm)

30 150
(MPa)

20
100

10
SVM ANN FIS ANFIS GEP 50
SVM ANN FIS ANFIS GEP
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 0
0 50 100 150 200 250
Actual Compressive Strength (MPa)
Actual Slump (mm)
Fig. 9 Actual verses predicted compressive strength curve for testing
Fig. 12 Actual verses predicted slump curve for validation

250 These values of the lower limit [20 350 130 505 1015]
and upper limit [40 410 195 865 1365] were taken based
200
Predicted Slump (mm)

on the minimum and maximum values of the size of

150
CA,weight of cement, water, fine aggregate and coarse
aggregate used.
100
2) Ratio constraint
50
SVM ANN FIS ANFIS GEP
0
It has been found that, generally, the water/cement
0 50 100 150 200 250 ratio shall be 0.35 at the minimum (El-Gazery & Ali,
Actual Slump (mm) 2019; Emadi & Modarres, 2022; Kang & Yan, 2011; Wong
Fig. 10 Actual verses predicted slump curve for testing et al., 2020). Below this ratio, hydration of cement would
not take place, and honey comb structure would be cre-
ated. Therefore, the following constraint was introduced:
50 Wa/Ce > 0.37.
Predicted Compressive Strength

40
3) Absolute weight constraint
30
(MPa)

All the weights were converted with respect to the total

20 volume of mixtures as 1 ­m3. The whole program was car-
ried out in MATLAB 2014. The optimisation result is
10
presented in Table 4, which is very helpful for obtaining
SVM ANN FIS ANFIS GEP
the maximum strength and slump at the minimum cost.
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 In the case of Robust Optimisation, the above men-
Compressive Strength (MPa)
tioned methods were followed. The design parameter,
Fig.11 Actual verses predicted compressive strength curve
basis function, upper bound, and lower bound were
for validation
used as deterministic optimisation. Furthermore, uncer-
tainty of obtaining the strength and slump with respect
In order to maximize the strength of concrete and to aggregate size, cement, sand, and coarse aggregate
slump and to minimize the cost [i.e., to minimize were also considered (Moulick et al., 2019a). The mixture
(1/strengtℎ), (1/slump) and (cost)], Eqs. 1, 2, 3 were mini- design was evaluated at the maximum strength and max-
mized in this study for the given constraints. imum slump with the lowest cost, as presented in Table 5.
Available range constraints: This methodology is very much conducive to obtaining
the optimum mix proportion for finding the maximum
1) CAmax < Size of CA < CAmin strength and workability at the lowest cost, while con-
2) Cemax < Ce < Cemin sidering all the uncertainties. Moreover, experiments
3) FAmax < FA < FAmin were conducted with the same mix proportion consid-
4) CAmax < CA < CAmin ered. However, due to the lack of time, 7 days’ compres-
5) Wamax < Wa < Wamin sive strength was achieved as 29.5 MPa, which should be
Mandal et al. AI in Civil Engineering (2024) 3:7 Page 20 of 24

0.96
0.92

0.90
35.6

0.88
35.2

0.76
40.0 1.00

25.4
24.2

0.72

0.72
0.70

0.59
0.58
30.0 0.80

14.9

R square
0.60
RMSE

20.0
0.40

3.4
10.0

2.8
2.6
2.6

2.4
Slump 0.20 Slump
Strength Strength
0.0 0.00
SVM ANN FUZZY ANFIS GA SVM ANN FUZZY ANFIS GA

Strength Slump Strength Slump

(a) RMSE testing (e) R2 testing

16.9

0.86
0.98
0.83
0.96

0.94
0.80
0.90

0.71
0.82
20.0 1.00
11.8

0.60
10.7
9.5

15.0 0.80
7.0
RMSE

0.60
10.0

R
0.40
4.0

3.9
3.4

3.3
3.2

5.0 Slump 0.20 Slump

Strength Strength
0.0 0.00
SVM ANN FUZZY ANFIS GA SVM ANN FUZZY ANFIS GA
Strength Slump Strength Slump

(b) RMSE validation (f) R2 validation

30.0

359.0
25.5
19.8

30.0 400.0
19.1

205.1
135.8

300.0
11.1

123.8
Chi square

20.0
MAE

200.0
47.2

10.0
2.7

100.0
2.3
2.1

1.9

1.8

Slump Slump
9.5
6.2

5.6
5.1

4.6

Strength Strength
0.0 0.0
SVM ANN FUZZY ANFIS GA SVM ANN FUZZY ANFIS GA

Strength Slump Strength Slump

(c) MAE testing (g) Chi square testing

28.91
14.1
10.2

15.0 30.00
17.07
9.1

9.0

12.11
11.53
6.3

Chi square

10.0 20.00
MAE

5.76
5.81

5.57
3.6
3.5
3.1

4.28

4.05

4.05
2.7
2.7

5.0 10.00
Slump Slump
Strength Strength
0.0 0.00
SVM ANN FUZZY ANFIS GA SVM ANN FUZZY ANFIS GA

Strength Slump Strength Slump

(d) MAE validation (h) Chi square validation

Fig. 13 The statistical analysis result for testing and validation of strength and slump
Mandal et al. AI in Civil Engineering (2024) 3:7 Page 21 of 24

multiplied by 1.5 to obtain 28 days’ strength—the result
is 44.25 MPa (Table 5).
4 Conclusion
The construction industry relies heavily on concrete;
thus, it’s crucial to precisely forecast and optimize the
strength and workability of concrete mixtures, while
diminishing the cost. In this study, concrete’s compres-
sive strength and workability in terms of slump were
predicted by adopting support vector machine (SVM),
artificial neural network (ANN), fuzzy inference sys-
tem (FIS), adaptive fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) and
genetic expression programing (GEP), while consider-
ing two hundred pieces of data about concrete’s mix
designs, covering coarse aggregate size, cement, water,
fine aggregate and coarse aggregate. Among these data,
85% were used for training purpose, and 15% for test-
ing purpose in all the five machine learning methods.
In addition, in order to validate the five methodologies,
some experimental investigations were conducted on
fifteen concrete mixes. This approach increases the reli-
ability and generalizability of results. The R and MSE
values were computed in all the five methods both for
training and validation. The results clearly signify that
ANFIS can yield the best results among all the five
methods in terms of both training and validation. Thus,
it can be used successfully for predicting concrete’s
compressive strength and slump based on the available
data. However, GEP generated the equations very much
helpful for others in predicting concrete’s strength and
slump. It is evitable that, one of the main obstacles in
the construction industry is that concrete is very much
sensitive to even a small variation in the constitutive
materials’ mix proportions and other external factors.
Therefore, robust optimisation was carried out by con-
sidering the uncertainty of strength, slump and cost,
while using the basis equations obtained from GEP to
determine the optimum proportions of concrete mix-
tures, so as to get the maximum concrete strength and
workability at the lowest cost. This study contributes
much to the concrete industry, on-site engineers, etc.
in predicting the strength and workability for particu-
lar coarse aggregate size, cement, water, fine aggregate,
and coarse aggregate. It can also help them obtain the
maximum strength and workability at the minimum
cost. However, certain practical factors, such as the
availability and cost of materials, or specific require-
ments of individual projects, may limit the applicability
of the optimized mix designs.
It is demonstrated in this study that the deterministic
optimization of concrete mixes’ design using Genetic
Algorithm (GA) can be realized with some basic func-
tions generated by Genetic Expression Programing
(GEP), so as to obtain the optimum concrete mix pro-
portion and determine the maximum compressive
strength and slump at the lowest cost. This study also
revealed that robust optimization of concrete design
mix by considering all the uncertainty using Genetic
Algorithm (GA) depending on the basis functions gen-
erated by Genetic Expression Programing (GEP), can
be used to predict the maximum compressive strength
and slump at the lowest cost with the least uncertainty.

Table 4 Value obtained by multi objective optimisation maximization of strength, slump and minimization cost
Cost (USD) Strength (Mpa) Slump (mm) Size of CA (mm) Cement O.P.C Water content Fine aggregate Coarse
(Kg/m3) (Kg/m3) (Kg/m3) aggregate
(Kg/m3)

47.9807 38.77843 21.2816 20 350 130 505 1015

54.79562 53.88439 143.879 21.20653 401.7528 184.5748 514.0126 1209.92991
47.99215 38.7453 21.3418 20.00919 350.0062 130.0014 506.4167 1018.64229
54.79577 53.88387 143.8873 21.20765 401.7542 184.5672 514.0145 1209.93107
53.98078 49.40462 218.5364 23.25992 395.2565 165.6198 527.9417 1207.24925
47.99411 39.06105 4.313755 20.05094 350.0052 131.9693 505.1095 1025.29605
49.07454 42.48581 153.2789 21.32339 356.5155 161.7349 517.4125 1200.9722
52.94997 48.77516 6446.089 20.83439 388.4254 155.4855 511.629 1160.63078

Table 5 Obtained Robust Optimisation result

Max agg Cement Water Fine Coarse Desired Desired Slump Strength Cost (USD)
size O.P.C (Kg/ content aggregate aggregate strength(Mpa) slump(mm) obtained obtained
m3) (Kg/m3) (Kg/m3) (Kg/m3) (mm) (MPa)

40 367.62 183.33 864.99 1364.97 45.02 147.90 140 44.25 53.12

Mandal et al. AI in Civil Engineering (2024) 3:7
This study was carried out by using only 200 data
sets, which may not be sufficient to capture the full
range of variability in designing concrete mixes, par-
ticularly given the number of variables that were exam-
ined. Furthermore, concrete mixes’ proportion types
and the quantity of admixtures were not used, and the
gradation of coarse and fine aggregate was not consid-
ered. Besides, fibres and fibre reinforcement polymers
in concrete were not used in this study (Sarir et al.,
2016). Moreover, each machine learning method has its
limitation, which can impact the performance of this
study’s model. Despite some deficiencies, this study is
useful for predicting and optimising desired properties
of concrete.
Author contributions
Sumanta Mandal (First Author) has carried out whole computation. The idea
and whole formulation and writing were done by Amit Shiuly. Debasis Sau
and Achintya Kumar Mondal carried out the experimental program and help
to edit the manuscript. The soft computational idea and editing was carried
out by Kaustav Sarkar. All the authors have contributed to this study’s ideas,
computation, experimental programs, thesis writing, paper editing, etc.
Funding
No funding has been obtained for carrying out this research.
Data availability
Not applicable.
Declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests
or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work
reported in this paper.
Received: 5 September 2023 Revised: 20 March 2024 Accepted:
22 March 2024
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