Using artificial neural network to predict the fracture properties of the interfacial transition zone of concrete at the meso-scale

Concrete is a multi-phase heterogeneous material in which the interfacial transition zone (ITZ) between aggregates and mortar significantly affects the cracking behaviour of concrete, especially under tensile load. In this paper, the artificial neural network (ANN) method is applied in predicting the fracture properties of ITZ in concrete. To form the data pool for the training of the ANN, a large number of two-dimensional (2D) meso-scale...