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A new formulation to estimate the elastic modulus of concrete containing recycled coarse aggregate is proposed in this work using artificial neural networks (ANN) and nonlinear regression. Up to six predictors variables were used to training 243 ANN. The models were generated based on results obtained from experimental campaigns. Feedforward neural network and Levenberg–Marquardt back propagation algorithm were used for training the ANN. The best ANN was found with the architecture 6-4-2-1 (input -1st hidden layer -2nd hidden layer -output), attaining a root-mean-square error of 2.4 GPa associated with a coefficient of determination of 0.91. Once the ANN model was established, 46,656 concrete samples were created. These were employed to formulate the model using nonlinear regression. The developed model showed a highly efficient performance to predict the elastic modulus. Lastly, considering the parametric study conducted, the results pointed out that the approach can be applied to predict the concrete elastic modulus and can indicate better mix proportions for concretes containing natural and/or recycled coarse aggregates, enabling its use as a simulation tool in the development of engineering projects focused on durability and sustainability.
Félix et al. (Sat,) studied this question.