Research Article
ANeuralNetwork-BasedPredictionofSuperplasticizersEffecton
theWorkabilityandCompressiveCharacteristicsofPortland
PozzolanaCement-BasedMortars
P.Manikandan ,
1
V.Vasugi ,
1
V.PremKumar ,
2
S.Duraimurugan,
3
M.Sankar,
4
A.ChithambarGanesh,
2
andG.SenthilKumaran
5
1
School of Civil Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai Campus, India
2
Department of Civil Engineering, Sree Vidyanikethan Engineering College, Tirupati, India
3
Regional Concrete Manager, Fosroc Chemicals India Private Limited, Chennai, India
4
Regional Formulator, Fosroc Chemicals India Private Limited, Chennai, India
5
Department of Civil Engineering, Copper Belt University, Kitwe, Zambia
Correspondence should be addressed to V. Vasugi; vasugi.v@vit.ac.in, V. Prem Kumar; premkumar.v@vidyanikethan.edu, and
G. Senthil Kumaran; kumaran.gs@cbu.ac.zm
Received 24 June 2022; Revised 12 August 2022; Accepted 17 August 2022; Published 16 May 2023
Academic Editor: Temel Varol
Copyright©2023P.Manikandanetal.TisisanopenaccessarticledistributedundertheCreativeCommonsAttributionLicense,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Portland Pozzolana Cement (PPC) mortars are predominantly employed in plastering works to achieve better workability, superior
surface fnish, and higher fneness to ofer better cohesion with fne aggregates than the ordinary Portland cement (OPC) mortars. To
achieve high performance in the cement mortar similar to cement concrete, the addition of a superplasticizer is recommended. Te
present study investigates the impact of addition of sulphonated naphthalene formaldehyde- (SNF)-based (0.5%, 0.6%, 0.7%, and 0.8%)
andlignosulphate-(LS)-based(0.2%,0.3%,0.4%,and0.5%)superplasticizersontheworkabilityandcompressivestrengthcharacteristics
ofPPCmortars.Plasteringmortarsofratio1:4werepreparedwithnaturalsandandmanufacturingsand(Msand)as fneaggregates.A
fow table test was conducted on all the mortar mix proportions, and the efects of the inclusion of superplasticizers on fow properties
wererecordedatdiferenttimeintervals(0,30,60,90,and120minutes).PPCmortarcubeswereprepared,cured,andexaminedtoassess
theinclusionofchemicaladmixturesoncompressivestrengthatdiferentages(1,3,7,14,and28days).Teexperimental fndings from
the workability and compressive strength of PPC mortars were analyzed, and the corresponding results were predicted using artifcial
intelligence.Experimentalinvestigationsdemonstratedthatthedesiredfowcharacteristicsandhighercompressivestrengthresultswere
achieved from a 0.7% dosage of ligno-based superplasticizer. Te predicted workability and compressive strength results at various ages
acquired by implementing an Artifcial Neural Network (ANN) were found to be in close agreement with the experimental results.
1.Introduction
Cement mortar is considered to be one of the typical and
cheaper building materials employed in the feld of con-
struction technology. When cement material is utilized for
producing mortar for plastering work, it is termed as cement
plaster. Cement plaster is essential in bonding internal and
external coats between the concrete surface and painting.
Cement plaster is the blend of ordinary Portland cement/
Portland Pozzolana cement/Portland slag cement, fne
aggregates, and water in adequate proportions that are usually
applied to masonry, exteriors, and interiors to obtain a smooth
surface fnish[1].Cementmortarfndsanextensiveapplication
in plastering work, building masonry units, damaged concrete
repairing, leveling the foor, patching work, fller materials in
ferrocement, and developing precast materials and damp
proofng materials [2].
Both OPC and PPC-based mortar mixes are widely
employed in construction practices because of their ad-
vantages and disadvantages. Tese days, PPC-based mortar
Hindawi
Advances in Materials Science and Engineering
Volume 2023, Article ID 2605414, 14 pages
https://doi.org/10.1155/2023/2605414