Laboratory Evaluation and Machine Learning-Based Prediction of Mechanical Properties in Cement Mortar Incorporating Micro-silica Gel and Ceramic Waste Powder

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Danial Nasr ¹

Rezvan Babagoli ²

Pariya Rostami ³

¹ Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Khorasgan branch, Islamic Azad University, Khorasgan, Isfahan, Iran

² Department of Civil Engineering, University of Science and Technology of Mazandaran, Behshahr, Iran

³ Department of Civil Engineering, Khorasgan branch, Islamic Azad University, Khorasgan, Isfahan, Iran

10.22067/jfcei.2025.92574.1350

Abstract

In this study, the effect of replacing waste ceramic powder and silica gel as a partial replacement of cement in mortar was investigated. Test specimens were prepared with different replacement percentages (0, 50 and 100% waste ceramic powder and 0, 10, 20 and 30% silica gel) and their mechanical properties and durability including compressive, tensile, flexural strength, water absorption and permeability were evaluated. This study aimed to predict the mechanical properties of cement mortar containing silica gel and waste ceramic powder using machine learning models (CatBoost, LightGBM and Ensemble). The results show that replacing 10% of silica gel improves compressive, tensile and flexural strength, but increasing this amount to more than 10% leads to a decrease in strength. Also, using 100% waste ceramic powder compared to 50% replacement leads to an increase in mechanical strength and a decrease in water absorption. Finally, the optimal combination to achieve the best performance includes replacing 20% silica gel in mortar containing 50% waste ceramic powder and 30% silica gel in mortar containing 100% waste ceramic powder. This research shows that the use of these compounds can help produce more stable and resistant mortars and be an effective step towards the sustainable development of the construction industry. The Ensemble model showed high accuracy in predictions with a coefficient of determination of R² ≈ 0.99 and RMSE ≈ 0.015 MPa, which is related to the dominant role of waste ceramic powder (50%) and silica gel (45%) in improving mechanical properties and reducing porosity.

Keywords

Mortar

silica gel

waste ceramic

compressive strength

mortar durability

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