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      <doi>10.14455/ISEC.2026.13(2).CON-37</doi>
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        <article-title>MACHINE LEARNING PREDICTION OF TENSILE PROPERTIES OF ENGINEERED CEMENTITIOUS COMPOSITES</article-title>
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      <author>AMRO A. SEIFELNASR, M. A. ALHAJ-HUSSEIN, JAMAL A. ABDALLA, RAMI A. HAWILEH and ADIL K. AL-TAMIMI</author>
      <aff>Dept of Civil Engineering, American Univ of Sharjah, Sharjah, UAE<br /></aff>
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      <title>ABSTRACT</title>
      <p>Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC) exhibit exceptional strain-hardening behavior, yet predicting their tensile properties remains challenging due to complex nonlinear interactions among mix constituents and fiber characteristics.  This study presents a comprehensive machine learning framework for predicting both tensile stress and tensile strain capacity of ECC.  A diverse multi-source database comprising 655 stress and 746 strain measurements spanning eight fiber types, water-to-binder ratios of 0.16–0.47, and fiber volume fractions of 0.5–3.0% was compiled from three published datasets.  A physics-informed Fiber Reinforcement Index (FRI = V_f × L_f/d_f) was included among 18 input features.  Fifteen individual machine learning models and three stacking ensembles were trained with Optuna Bayesian optimization (200 trials, ten-fold cross-validation), and overfitting was monitored via the train–test R² gap.  CatBoost achieved the highest accuracy for tensile stress (R² = 0.923, RMSE = 0.975 MPa), while XGBoost performed best for strain capacity (R² = 0.853, RMSE = 0.921%).  Per-source test R² ranged from 0.76 to 0.93, confirming cross-source generalization.  SHapley Additive Explanations (SHAP) analysis revealed a dual mechanistic pattern:  water content and supplementary cementitious materials dominate stress (matrix-controlled), whereas fiber type, aspect ratio, and FRI govern strain capacity (fiber-controlled), providing quantitative confirmation of ECC micromechanics theory.</p>
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        <italic>Keywords: </italic>Gradient boosting, SHAP analysis, Strain-hardening composites, Fiber-reinforced cementitious materials, Optuna optimization, Reinforcement index, Micromechanics</p>
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      <hpdf>CON-37</hpdf>
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