Machine Learning-Based Model for Predicting the Shear Strength of Slender Reinforced Concrete Beams without Stirrups

The influence of concrete mix properties on the shear strength of slender structured concrete beams without stirrups (SRCB-WS) is a widespread point of contention. Over the past six decades, the shear strength of SRCB-WS has been studied extensively in both experimental and theoretical contexts. The most recent version of the ACI 318-19 building code requirements updated the shear strength equation for SRCB-WS by factoring in the macroeconomic factors and the contribution of the longitudinal steel structural ratio. However, the updated equation still does not consider the effect of the shear span ratio (a/d) and the yield stress of longitudinal steel rebars (F-y). Therefore, this study investigates the importance of the most significant potential variables on the shear strength of SRCB-WS to help develop a gene expression-based model to estimate the shear strength of SRCB-WS. A database of 784 specimens was used from the literature for training and testing the proposed gene expression algorithm for forecasting the shear strength of SRCB-WS. The collected datasets are comprehensive, wherein all considered concrete properties were considered over the previous 68 years. The performance of the suggested algorithm versus the ACI 318-19 equation was statistically evaluated using various measures, such as root mean square error, mean absolute error, mean absolute percentage error, and the coefficient of determination. The evaluation results revealed the superior performance of the proposed model over the current ACI 318-19 equation. In addition, the proposed model is more comprehensive and considers additional variables, including the effect of the shear span ratio and the yield stress of longitudinal steel rebars. The developed model reflects the power of employing gene expression algorithms to design reinforced concrete elements with high accuracy.