Application of expert systems in prediction of flexural strength of cement mortars

In this study, an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Adaptive Network-based Fuzzy Inference Systems (ANFIS) prediction models for flexural strength of the cement mortars have been developed. For purpose of constructing this models, 12 different mixes with 144 specimens of the 2, 7, 28 and 90 days flexural strength experimental results of cement mortars containing pure Portland cement (PC), blast furnace slag (BFS), waste tire rubber powder (WTRP) and BFS+WTRP used in training and testing for ANN and ANFIS were gathered from the standard cement tests. The data used in the ANN and ANFIS models are arranged in a format of four input parameters that cover the Portland cement, BFS, WTRP and age of samples and an output parameter which is flexural strength of cement mortars. The ANN and ANFIS models have produced notable excellent outputs with higher coefficients of determination of R-2, RMS and MAPE. For the testing of dataset, the R-2, RMS and MAPE values for the ANN model were 0.9892, 0.1715 and 0.0212, respectively. Furthermore, the R2, RMS and MAPE values for the ANFIS model were 0.9831, 0.1947 and 0.0270, respectively. As a result, in the models, the training and testing results indicated that experimental data can be estimated to a superior close extent by the ANN and ANFIS models.