Prediction of Lightweight Aggregate Concrete Compressive Strength

Nowadays, the better performance of lightweight structures during earthquake has resulted in using lightweight concrete more than ever. However, determining the compressive strength of concrete used in these structures during their service through a none-destructive test is a popular and useful method. One of the main methods of non-destructive testing in the assessment of compressive strength of concrete in the service is ultrasonic pulse velocity test. The aim of this study is predicting the compressive strength of lightweight aggregate concrete by offering a suitable mathematical formulation. Many samples of lightweight aggregate concrete, made by expanded clay, have been produced and tested. After determining the actual compressive strength and indirect ultrasonic pulse velocity for each sample, a relationship was presented to predict the compressive strength through Gene Expression Programming (GEP). The results show the presented equation has high accuracy in estimating the compressive strength of samples and that experimental results are perfectly compatible with the test results.