Prediction of mechanical strength of polypropylene fibre reinforced concrete using artificial neural network

The usefulness of fibre reinforced concrete (FRC) in various civil engineering applications is indisputable. Fibre reinforced concrete has been successfully used so far in construction of structures like bridges, industrial structures, concrete, architectural panels, precast products, offshore structures and many other applications. This paper presents the study on the mechanical properties of the polypropylene fibre reinforced concrete. The parameters varied in the study include volume of fibre (0%, 0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5% & 2.0%) and the curing period (7 days and 14 days). From the study it is concluded that the further increases in the volume of fibre reduces the water cement ratio. The mechanical properties of the polypropylene fibre reinforced concrete were also predicted by using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and found to have minimal error when compared to actual experimental results.