Hybrid particle swarm optimization and group method of data handling for the prediction of ultimate strength of concrete-filled steel tube columns

This study presents a hybrid model coupling particle swarm optimization (PSO) with group method of data handling (GMDH) for predicting the ultimate strength of rectangular concrete-filled steel tube (RCFST) columns. A large database of 490 data samples collected from the existing literature was used to construct the model. Compared with the optimal model among the nine existing models, the coefficient of variation (COV), mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) and root relative squared error (RRSE) values of all datasets of the PSO-GMDH model were decreased by 58.38 %, 69.22 % and 64.27 %, respectively; while the coefficient of determination (R²) and a20-index values were increased by 34.32 % and 8.65 %, respectively. The results show that the predicted results of PSO-GMDH model are in good agreement with the experimental results and can accurately predict the ultimate strength of rectangular RCFST columns. In addition, a graphical user interface (GUI) has been developed to facilitate the application of the PSO-GMDH model.