Determination of Chloride Diffusion Coefficient in Light Weight Concrete based on Artificial Neural Network

Light weight concrete, because of its practical benefits, is known as one of the most important structural materials in recent years. However, due to the high porosity of aggregates in the concrete, permeability models, specifications for durability and compressive strength of light weight concrete is different with ordinary concrete. In this article the effects of silica fume on the properties and durability of light weight concrete against chloride ion permeability is investigated. For this purpose, the basic parameters such as the ratio of water to cement in the concrete mix design and percentage of silica fume as the main parameters were analyzed And its effect on compressive strength, durability and permeability of chloride ion in lightweight concrete was studied. According to the chloride ion concentrations at various depths in concrete, the chloride penetration coefficient for concrete was determined according to the Fick's second law. Finally, a neural network based model for determining chloride penetration in concrete is presented.