Prediction of the bond strength of ribbed steel bars in concrete based on genetic programming

This paper presents the application of multi-gene genetic programming (MGP) technique for modeling the bond strength of ribbed steel bars in concrete. In this regard, the experimental data of 264 splice beam tests from different technical papers were used for training, validating and testing the model. Seven basic parameters affecting on the bond strength of steel bars were selected as input parameters. These parameters are diameter, relative rib area and yield strength of steel bar, minimum concrete cover to bar diameter ratio, splice length to bar diameter ratio, concrete compressive strength and transverse reinforcement index. The results show that the proposed MGP model can be alternative approach for predicting the bond strength of ribbed steel bars in concrete. Moreover, the performance of the developed model was compared with the building codes' empirical equations for a complete comparison. The study concludes that the proposed MGP model predicts the bond strength of ribbed steel bars better than the existing building codes' equations. Using the proposed MGP model and building codes' equations, a parametric study was also conducted to investigate the trend of the input variables on the bond strength of ribbed steel bars in concrete.