Nowadays, the accurate prediction of strength properties of cementitious materials containing nano‐ and micro‐silica (NS–MS) remains an open question because of the highly nonlinear function of its constituents on the porosity. In the present study, a combined framework is developed by integrating ant colony optimization (ACO), particle swarm optimization (PSO), and biogeography‐based optimization (BBO) with the artificial neural network (ANN) to predict compressive and flexural strengths of cement mortar in two different forms of ignoring (ANNII) and considering (ANNIII) the porosity as an input parameter. This procedure is accomplished considering the porosity effect on the strengths and implementing an experimental program containing 32 mixes (960 specimens) with different NS–MS contents at various ages. Macro‐ and micro‐structural analyses showed that NS–MS caused more decreased pore structure, and thus this situation increases strength properties compared to their separate use. Also, MBBO‐MOANNIII results indicated an improvement in convergence speed and model accuracy compared to other models. This improvement is because of considering the porosity.
Abrams' law is used to predict the compressive strength of cementitious materials based on water/cement ratio (W/C). While compressive strength does not only depend on W/C, but also there are many factors that influence the strength of mortar, such as cement strength class and sand/cement ratio (S/C). Novelty of this study, the effect of three types of cement strength classes in 54 cement mortar mix designs on generalization of modified Abrams' law and Bolomey's formula are investigated. Modified equations base on cement strength class and S/C were proposed for the compressive and flexural strength of cement mortar in the range between a very low W/C and a very high W/C. The results showed that the modified equations additional to W/C are strongly influenced by the cement strength class and S/C. Moreover, to show sensitivity of above parameters microstructural characteristics were also studied by the scanning electron microscope (SEM) and an energy dispersive spectrometer analysis (EDS). K E Y W O R D S Abrams' law, cement mortar, cement strength class, compressive strength, flexural strength, SEM and EDS analysis 1 | INTRODUCTIONMany factors can be influenced by the strength of development mortar and concrete, 1-6 such as the cement composition and fineness, 7-9 additives, 10 water/cement (W/C) ratio, 11 sand/cement (S/C) ratio, 12 aggregate, 13 age 14 and shape of specimen. 15,16 Usually W/C ratio is more important than the cement content of mortar in compressive strength. 17,18 Abram's law expresses a model to consider the effect of W/C ratio on compressive strength of concrete, 19 but research on the impact of W/C ratio on the mortar strength was very limited 20 as well as different S/C ratios. Abram's law for cement mortar with various W/C and S/C ratio has been investigated by Rao 21 which led to the proposition of mathematical models to predict the compressive strength of mortars based on the W/C ratio that ranged from very low to very high strengths and showed the single largest factor affecting the strength of mortar was the W/C ratio. The researchers expanded this law and proposed a relationship between compressive strength and components of cement mortar. 22,23 Recently research shown that the cement strength class is one of the important parameters influencing the compressive strength of cement mortar and their results indicate that the type of cement strength class causes substantial effect on the mechanical properties of the cement mortar. 24,25 Normally scanning electron microscope (SEM) used as a powerful tool in the analysis of mortar to better identifying the effect of these parameters on physical and mechanical properties of mortar 26,27 which may help how the cement strength class and mortar components can effect on the microstructure of mortars. As mentioned above researchers have been studying the effect of W/C, S/C and cement strength class but none of them simultaneously examined the parameters of cement strength class and S/C ratio as a formula on the compressive and flexural strength of ...
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