Machine-learning assisted analysis on the seismic performance of steel reinforced concrete composite columns

This paper presents the data-driven analysis on the seismic performance of steel reinforced concrete (SRC) composite columns by using machine learning (ML) algorithms. A total of 248 test data of SRC columns subjected to the combined axial compressive force and low reversed cyclic horizontal force was collected from the published literatures to form the database. Since the seismic action triggers the SRC columns to suffer from different failure mode and hence exhibit quite different load bearing mechanism, six ML algorithms were employed to facilitate the failure mode classification and bearing capacity prediction. It was found that the Random Forest (RF) model predicts the failure mode most accurately, while XGBoost model delivers the best estimation of bearing capacity. To further evaluate the feasibility of ML models and unveil the interaction between different variables, interpretability analysis of ML models was carried out. In comparison with the conventional empirical judgement and theoretical derivation, ML model delivers enhanced accuracy and robustness to predict the seismic performance of SRC columns, and hence it could be used as a promising alternative for the preliminary design and analysis of SRC columns.