A principal component analysis in concrete design

Abstract Over the last 200 years, ordinary concrete has evolved from four basic ingredient materials (gravel, sand, cement, and water) to multicomponent complex composites. The number and variety of the additives, admixtures, non-conventional aggregates, fillers, and fibres currently used for concrete production have continued to grow rapidly. Regrettably, the methods for de-signing concrete mixes have not evolved at a similarly fast pace. Keeping the above facts in mind, the authors utilised a principal component analysis (PCA) to design modern concrete mixes. As an initial approach, 550 cast and tested concrete mixes were analysed. The main aim of the presented study was to prove the usefulness of the PCA methodology for the fast classification of concrete mix compositions. The acquired knowledge should be useful for the effective design of multicomponent modern concrete mixes.