Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1-7 (2009)
Abstract
This study estimates the strength of concrete, an attempt is also made to increase the accuracy
of Calculating the strength, using the nondestructive test (NDT) surface hardness rebound value,
material design parameters and regression analysis. The strength of the concrete specimens was
130-480 kgf/cm2, and their ages were 7-38 days. In total, 166 standard specimens of concrete were
grouped into 146 training examples and 20 test examples to estimate concrete compressive strength.
Regression analysis was performed to establish a mathematical formula. Study results indicate
that the correlation coefficient may reach 0.9622, indicating that the proposed method has referential
value. Therefore, engineers may use this comprehensive approach to develop NDTs to determine
concrete strength.
Key Words: Strength of Concrete, Rebound Value, Design Parameters, Regression Analysis
1. Introduction
Concrete has significantly influenced the nature of
engineering projects. Concrete, as a composite material,
is generally composed of cement, sand, aggregate, water,
mineral admixtures and chemical admixtures.
Considerable work has been conducted to develop
rapid, nondestructive tests (NDTs) that provide a reproducible measure of concrete quality in a structure [1].
Unfortunately, as is usually the case in concrete testing,
all these NDT generate results that are affected by various parameters such as aggregate type and size, age, moisture content, and mix proportions [1]. Therefore, the
correlation between measured properties and strength
differs for various concretes and must be limited to the
concrete in question. However, the NDTs are also convenient and have been used for many years in quality management of engineering materials. These tests are useful
in determining the differences in concrete quality from
*Corresponding author. E-mail: chkou@chu.edu.tw
impact and amount of lost kinetic energy affect the rebound value. Typically, the amount of energy lost during
contact between the pole and concrete must be determined via the stress-strain relationship of the concrete;
therefore, rebound energy is correlated with the concrete
strength and rigidity. However, the accuracy of RHT need
to be improved in real applications when estimating concrete strength using the surface rebound value.
Low strength concrete will have a low rebound value. However, when two concrete specimens have the
same strength and different rigidities, the resulting rebound values may not equal each other [5]. The amount
of energy lost with low-rigidity concrete is greater than
that lost with high-rigidity concrete. The reason for this
difference may be associated with material parameters.
For instance, the amount of coarse aggregate and how
aggregate is mixed in a concrete mixture affect the concrete rigidity, thus affecting the rebound value.
Thus, this study analyzes the proportions in concrete
mixtures. Design parameters are used as input data to
create a rebound model, to enhance the accuracy of determining concrete strength.
In the conventional material modeling process, regression analysis is an important tool for constructing a
model. In this study, seven design parameters, i.e. amounts
of cement, coarse aggregate, fine aggregate, slag, fly ash,
chemical admixture, water-to-binder ratio (X1-7) and rebound value of concrete, were used to build the regression formula.
2. Experimental Work
Figure 1 presents the research flow chart. The compressive strength of concrete is estimated using the statistical regression analysis model.
Additionally, the root mean square of error (RMSE)
and coefficient of determination are used to determine
model reliability. The research method is as follows:
(1) The rebound value with concrete design parameters, using statistical regression to find the compressive strength. Statistical regression is used to
identify compressive strength based on the rebound
value and concrete design parameters.
In total, 146 specimens with different mixture proportions are made in this study. Different methods for the
HRT of standard cylinders ( = 15 cm, L = 30 cm) are
Estimating the Strength of Concrete Using Surface Rebound value and Design Parameters of Concrete Material
Table 1. Regression analysis output and input variables (The lower and upper bounds of each component)
Variable
Component
Input variable X 1
Input variable X 2
Input variable X 3
Input variable X 4
Input variable X 5
Input variable X 6
Input variable X 7
Input variable X 8
Input variable X 9
Input variable X 1 0
Output variable Y
Range of values
Cement ( k g / m )
Coarse aggregate ( k g / m 3 )
Fine aggregate ( k g / m 3 )
Slag ( k g / m 3 )
Fly ash ( k g / m 3 )
Chemical admixture ( k g/ m 3 )
Water-to-binder ratio
Age (days)
Moisture content (%)
Rebound value (n)
Compressive strength (kgf/cm2 )
140-280
0807-1031
790-910
060-150
040-110
1.7-8.6.
0.45-0.62
07-38
0.015-0.060
12-30
130-480
sive strength of concrete. In this model, statistical regression analysis is applied to all data collected for the 146
concrete samples. The resulting regression is as follows:
Y = 1237.66 0.695 (X1) 0.292 (X2) 0.501 (X3)
0.530 (X4) 1.117 (X5) + 1.013 (X6)
606.478 (X7) + 3.673 (X8) 30.994 (X9)
+ 12.887 (X10)
(2)
(1)
(3)
where
Tij = the test output value of the jth order on the ith sample
Oij = the objective output value of the jth order on the ith
sample
n = sample number
N = number of output variables
Table 2 lists the parameter values obtained, by regression analysis for regression, residual error, and total
results analysis for statistical regression. The F- value is
168.5738 and the P-value is 3.97E-71. The P-value for
this model is far smaller than the standard level of significance (a = 0.05); therefore, significance is excellent, indicating that the regression line is valid.
The correlation coefficient is 0.9622 for this model,
and the coefficient of determination (R2) is 0.9258, RMSE
is 24.088, and goodness of fit is good. Thus, a very strong
positive relationship exists between independent and dependent variables.
Table 3 shows the correlation coefficients for each
input material parameter. Table 3 also lists the effects of
ingredients on concrete mixes and other input variables
on concrete compressive strength. A positive correlation
exists between rebound value, age, cement, slag, chemical admixture, and fly ash amount; concrete compressive
strength is compared with correlation coefficients of regression analysis (Table 3). Table 3 also lists the effects
of ingredients on concrete mixes and other input variables on concrete compressive strength. Table 3 shows
the test results of 20 repetitive measurements (of the concrete sample-Rebound value, age, cement, slag, fly ash
and chemical admixture) are all positively correlated with
concrete compressive strength, and have correlation coefficients of 0.916, 0.738, 0.431, 0.362, 0.248 and 0.331,
respectively. The water-to-binder ratio, moisture content,
course aggregate and fine aggregate are all negatively
correlated with concrete compressive strength, and have
correlation coefficients of -0.455, -0.417, -0.296 and
-0.289, respectively. The trend of correlation coefficients
generally complies with the physical and chemical characteristics of concrete with general aggregates. As too
many variables are included in this regression analysis,
correlation coefficients are 0.455-0.916. Thus, this stu-
Sum of squares
F value
P-value
010
135
145
978139.3
78332.92
1056472
97813.93
580.2439
168.5738
3.97E-71
Regression
Residual error
Total
Remarks: The F-value and P-value are regression parameters of regression analysis.
Coarse
Fine
Slag
Aggregate Aggregate
WaterFly Chemical
Moisture Rebound Compressive
to-binder Age
ash Admixture
Content Value
Strength
Ratio
1.000
-0.395
1.000
-0.673
0.457
0.459
0.394
-0.221
-0.777
0.203
-0.227
1.000
-0.186
-0.644
-0.301
1.000
0.010 1.000
0.185 0.757
1.000
-0.895
0.382
0.656
-0.558 -0.698
-0.630
1.000
-0.109
-0.399
-0.037
0.314
0.133
0.270
0.017 -0.074
-0.384 -0.175
0.036
-0.299
0.088 1.000
0.411 -0.157
0.479
0.431
-0.333
-0.296
-0.320
-0.289
0.386 0.261
0.362 0.248
0.342
0.331
-0.489
-0.455
1.000
0.604 -0.452
0.738 -0.417
1.000
0.916
1.000
Estimating the Strength of Concrete Using Surface Rebound value and Design Parameters of Concrete Material
pressive strength estimated by sample percentages (Figure 4), specify has an approximate straight-line graph
with little variation. Figure 4 shows the accumulated percentage for strengths of different specimens in 146 training examples in the model developed in the study with
actual compression strength values of 131-477 kgf/cm2 .
Concrete compressive strength in this study approximates
a normal distribution; this is also confirmed from the fact
that, with 20 test examples, an error percentage of 026% exists when compressive strength is 148.9-402.5
kgf/cm2 average error is only 5.43% and strength deviation is only 13.05 kgf/cm2 . Thus, the data are approximately normally distributed. The difference between expected values and estimated values is not large, suggesting that the regression analysis is valid.
However, when the seven design parameters (X1-7),
age (X8) and moisture content (X9) of concrete also used
as input variables in this model, the correlation coefficient increased to 0.9622.
Testing
Concrete compressive
strength (kgf/cm2)
Regression formula
estimates (kgf/cm2)
279
356
437
202
225
189
352
345
325
331
150
281
168
251
161
150
285
345
320
314
270.3
355.5
402.5
217.2
284.2
219.3
357.1
344.1
314.5
340.2
148.9
285.7
148.9
219.3
160
160
295.9
342.6
314.5
314.4
error mean values is 13.045 kgf/cm2, absolute error percentage is 5.43%, and the correlation coefficient is 0.9258.
Obtained from the regression analysis reasoning formula
and the accuracy thereby obtained are high.
Study results show that the accuracy of regression
formula is based on known parameters of material mixture proportions involving fly ash, slag and the chemical
admixture. The range of estimating strength is 130-480
kgf/cm2. Thus, the established estimation model has better accuracy than the equation (1).
The quality of the cement paste produced is primarily an inverse function of the water-cement ratio
(w/c). Restated, concrete strength is a function of total
void content of the material [6]. The accuracy of the established estimation model is based on known parameters of material mixture proportions, involving fly ash,
slag and chemical admixture [7].
Pozzolanic materials are known to enhance the uniformity of concrete. Adding fly ash to the mix introduces
a variable that increases paste quality and, consequently,
overall concrete quality. Many studies have shown that
when the water-binder ratio (w/b) is used instead of the
water-cement ratio as the basis for mix design, the accuracy of the strength prediction increases [8,9].
() 8.7
() 0.5
() 34.5
(+) 15.2
(+) 59.2
(+) 30.3
(+) 5.1
() 0.9
() 10.5
(+) 9.2
() 1.1
(+) 4.7
() 19.1
() 31.7
() 1
(+) 10
(+) 10.9
() 2.4
() 5.5
(+) 0.4
13.045
3%
0%
8%
8%
26%
16%
1%
0%
3%
3%
1%
2%
11%
13%
1%
7%
4%
1%
2%
0%
5.43%
Estimating the Strength of Concrete Using Surface Rebound value and Design Parameters of Concrete Material
References
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[3] Schmide. E.,The Concrete Test Hammer (Der Betom
pruf hammer), Schweiz Bauz (Zurich) Vol. 68, p. 378
(1950).
[4] Schmide, E., The Concrete Szlerometer, Proc, Int,
Symp, Nodestructive, Testing on Material and Structures Vol. 2, RILEM, Paries, p. 310 (1954).
[5] Lin, I.-C., The Test Concrete Strength the Non-Destruction Test Technology, the Taiwan area mixes the
concrete industry trade association published conference proceeding in advance, pp. 23-25 (1999).
[6] Aitcin, P. C. and Neville, A., High Performance Concrete Demystified, ACI Concrete International, Vol.
15, ACI, pp. 21-26 (1993).
[7] Yeh, I.-C., Computer-Aided Design for Optimum
Concrete Mixture, Cement and Concrete Composites,
Vol. 29, pp. 193-202 (2007).
[8] Yeh, I.-C., Modeling Slump Flow of Concrete Using
Second-Order Regressions and Artificial Neural Networks, Cement and Concrete Composites, Vol. 29,
pp. 474-480.
[9] Yeh, I.-C., Analysis of Strength of Concrete Using
Design of Experiments and Neural Networks, Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering, ASCE, Vol. 18,
pp. 597-604 (2006).