Prediction of Compressive Strengths of Concrete with Partial Fine Aggregate of Plastic Using Artificial Neural Network and Revisions

In recent past years, plastic waste has been a environmental menace. Utilization of plastic waste as fine aggregate substitution could reduce the demand and negative impacts of sand mining while addressing waste plastic challenges. This study aims at evaluating compressive strengths prediction models for concrete with plastic—mainly recycled plastic—as partial replacement or addition of fine aggregates, by use of artificial neural networks (ANNs), developed in OCTAVE 5.2.0 and datasets from reviews. 44 datasets from 8 different sources were used, that included four input variables namely:- water: binder ratio; control compressive strength (MPa); % plastic replacement or additive by weight and plastic type; and the output variable was the compressive strength of concrete with partial plastic aggregates. Various models were run and the selected model, with 14 nodes in hidden layer and 320,000 iterations, indicated overall root mean square error (RMSE) , absolute factor of variance (R2), mean absolute error (MAE) and mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) values of 1.786 MPa, 0.997, 1.329 MPa and 4.44 %. Both experimental and predicted values showed a generally increasing % reduction of compressive strengths with increasing % plastic fine aggregate. The model showed reasonably low errors, reasonable accuracy and good generalization. ANN model could be used extensively in modeling of green concrete, with partial waste plastic fine aggregate. The study recommend ANNs models application as possible alternative for green concrete trial mix design. Sustainable techniques such as low-cost superplasticizers from recycled material and cost-effective technologies to adequately sizing and shaping plastic for fine aggregate application should be encouraged, so as to enhance strength of concrete with partial plastic aggregates.