Predicting Shear Capacity of FRP-Reinforced Concrete Beams without Stirrups by Artificial Neural Networks, Gene Expression Programming, and Regression Analysis

The shear strength prediction of fiber-reinforced polymer- (FRP-) reinforced concrete beams is one of the most complicated issues in structural engineering applications. Developing accurate and reliable prediction models is necessary and cost saving. This paper proposes three new prediction models, utilizing artificial neural networks (ANNs) and gene expression programming (GEP), as a recently developed artificial intelligent techniques, and nonlinear regression analysis (NLR) as a conventional technique. For this purpose, a large database including 269 shear test results of FRP-reinforced concrete members was collected from the literature. The performance of the proposed models is compared with a large number of available codes and previously proposed equations. The comparative statistical analysis confirmed that the ANNs, GEP, and NLR models, in sequence, showed excellent performance, great efficiency, and high level of accuracy over all other existing models. The ANNs model, and to a lower level the GEP model, showed the superiority in accuracy and efficiency, while the NLR model showed that it is simple, rational, and yet accurate. Additionally, the parametric study indicated that the ANNs model defines accurately the interaction of all parameters on shear capacity prediction and have a great ability to predict the actual response of each parameter in spite of its complexity and fluctuation nature.