Using Support Vector Machine to Improve Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity Test for Concrete

Department of Civil Engineering, National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences, Taiwan  

^a Corresponding author: loandecor88@gmail.com

Abstract

In the construction industry, to evaluate the compressive strength of concrete, destructive and non-destructive testing methods are used. Non-destructive testing methods are preferable due to the fact that those methods do not destroy concrete samples. However, they usually give larger percentage of error than using destructive tests. Among the non-destructive testing methods, the ultrasonic pulse velocity test is the popular one because it is economic and very simple in operation. Using the ultrasonic pulse velocity test gives 20% MAPE more than using destructive tests. This paper aims to improve the ultrasonic pulse velocity test results in estimating the compressive strength of concrete using the help of artificial intelligent. To establish a better prediction model for the ultrasonic pulse velocity test, data collected from 312 cylinder of concrete samples are used to develop and validate the model. The research results provide valuable information when using the ultrasonic pulse velocity tests to the inputs data in addition with support vector machine by learning algorithms, and the actual compressive strengths are set as the target output data to train the model. The results show that both MAPEs for the linear and nonlinear regression models are 11.17% and 17.66% respectively. The MAPE for the support vector machine models is 11.02%. These research results can provide valuable information when using the ultrasonic pulse velocity test to estimate the compressive strength of concrete.