Evaluation of ANN Predicted Mechanical Properties of Jute & Bamboo Fiber .

What is it about?

The aim of the effort is to estimate the effect of jute and bamboo fibers with silica fume (SF) of different proportions on mechanical properties of concrete. Cube, cylinder and prism specimens are tested to determine the compressive, split tensile and flexural strength at 14 and 28 days of curing. To verify the experimental findings, further Artificial Neural Network (ANN) analysis is conducted. The study employs neural network (NN), such as the Neural Network-Leven Berg–Marquardt and the Neural Network Gradient Descent. In this investigation, feed-ahead lower back promulgation neural networks were employed. The NN predicted values are validated with actual values and the variation is found to be within 10% only. The predicted ANN results are compared with existing Response Surface Methodology model. Under compressive, split tensile and flexural load, the broken surface is examined at a smaller-scale level with a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The experimental results show that concrete with 0.5% bamboo fibers and 0.5% jute fibers with 10% SF had higher influence on the mechanical properties of concrete. When comparing ANN results, the suggested ANN model showed high level of accuracy in estimating the mechanical properties of natural-fiber-reinforced concrete. SEM examination displayed the failure pattern of concrete and fibers.

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Why is it important?

Concrete is one of the most widely used construction materials in the world, even though it is weak in tension. Many efforts have been made to enhance the behavior of concrete under tension. One such approach is addition of additive such as cementitious materials and fibers in concrete. The inclusion of fibers, particularly natural fibers such as jute and bamboo fibers, can increase the tensile strength of concrete (Khan and Ali Citation2019). Sustainable infrastructure development and concerns on environmental sustainability have paved way for the adoption of natural fibers in concrete (Kundu, Chakraborty, and Chakraborty Citation2018; Momoh and Israel Osofero Citation2019). Reinforced cement concrete composite consists of natural fibers with small diameter and discontinuous, discrete characteristic fibers scattered arbitrarily all through the concrete matrix (Islam and Ahmed Citation2018). Among the diverse natural fibers, bamboo and jute fibers can withstand tensile and flexural loads as well as impact load when compared to other fibers (Sen and Reddy Citation2011). Jute fibers are widely used in aerospace, automotive, maritime, and sporting industries due to their better properties such as low density, stiffness and light weight (Ajith, Kumar, and Elayaperumal Citation2014). On the other hand, the natural jute fiber in concrete can be the efficient material to reinforce the concrete that helps in the improvement of properties (Zakaria et al. Citation2017; Sridhar, Gobinath, and Serkan Kırgız Citation2022). Jute fiber as fiber reinforcement in concrete is found to be very effective in increasing the mechanical properties that help in minimizing the maintenance cost (Kundu, Chakraborty, and Chakraborty Citation2018). Addition of jute fibers (0.25% and 0.50% by volume of concrete) increases the fresh and hardened properties of concrete (Islam and Ahmed Citation2018). The characteristics of concrete with a high cement concentration are improved by adding jute fibers with short fiber lengths (Dayananda, Gowda, and Prasad Citation2018). Concrete with jute fiber addition beyond 0.4% showed reduction in compressive strength, causing poor workability (Zakaria et al. Citation2015). Jute yarn with 0.1% and 0.25% with cut length of 10 mm and 15 mm showed significant increase in mechanical properties of concrete under compressive, tensile, and flexural loads (Kim et al. Citation2012). Concrete with jute fibers of 50 mm length, 0.5 mm diameter, and 0.5% of fiber content with 10% of rice hush ash shows significant improvement in mechanical properties and impacts resistance when compared with concrete without fibers (Hussain and Ali Citation2019). Under compression, splitting tension, and flexure, jute-fiber-reinforced high-fluidity concrete showed increase in performance significantly when compared to jute-fiber-reinforced normal strength concrete (NSC). The flexural strength variation is also significant when compared to NSC (Kumar Citation2021).

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