Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Systems and Ensemble Methods in Joint Shear Prediction and Sensitivity Analysis

In the absence of ductile design, beam-column joints form weak links in the frame during seismic activities, hence jeopardizing the entire structure. Deducing from the views of researchers, estimation of joint shear strength of RC beam-column joint is a necessity with a complexity. This complexity highlights the importance of machine learning models due to their data handling and predictive capabilities. This study used 233 beam-column joints with 132 exterior and 101 interior joints for training and testing the ensemble machine-learning models and an Adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system. The performance indices of the models built and their comparison is carried out to find the optimum model to be deployed. The sensitivity analysis of the features considered was conducted to infer the differences in exterior and interior beam-column joints’ behavior.