Effect of expanded perlite aggregate on cyclic thermal loading of HSC and artificial neural network modeling

This paper describes a laboratory investigation of the resistance to freezing and thawing ofexpanded perlite aggregate (epa) concrete, compared with that of natural aggregate concrete. the effectsof epa ratios on high strength concrete (hsc) properties were studied for 28 days. epa replacements offine aggregate (02 mm) were used: 10%, 20% and 30%. the properties examined included compressivestrength, ultrasound pulse velocity (upv), porosity, microstructure and the relative dynamic modulusof elasticity (rdme) of hsc. results showed that the compressive strength, upv and rdme of sampleswere decreased with an increase in epa ratios. test results revealed that hsc was still durable after100, 200 and 300 cycles of freezing and thawing in accordance with the astm c666. after 300 cycles,reduction in compressive strength and rdme ranged from 7% to 29% and 5% to 21%, respectively. inthis paper, feed-forward artificial neural network (anns) techniques were used to model the relativechange in compressive strength and upv in cyclic thermal loading. genetic algorithms were applied inorder to determine optimum mix proportions subjected to 300 thermal cycling. the best performancewas obtained from hsc with about 10% epa.