A Hybrid SVR-Based Prediction Model for the Interfacial Bond Strength of Externally Bonded FRP Laminates on Grooves with Concrete Prisms

The current work presents a comparative study of hybrid models that use support vector machines (SVMs) and meta-heuristic optimization algorithms (MOAs) to predict the ultimate interfacial bond strength (IBS) capacity of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP). More precisely, a dataset containing 136 experimental tests was first collected from the available literature for the development of hybrid SVM models. Five MOAs, namely the particle swarm optimization, the grey wolf optimizer, the equilibrium optimizer, the Harris hawks optimization and the slime mold algorithm, were used; five hybrid SVMs were constructed. The performance of the developed SVMs was then evaluated. The accuracy of the constructed hybrid models was found to be on the higher side, with R2 ranges between 0.8870 and 0.9774 in the training phase and between 0.8270 and 0.9294 in the testing phase. Based on the experimental results, the developed SVM–HHO (a hybrid model that uses an SVM and the Harris hawks optimization) was overall the most accurate model, with R2 values of 0.9241 and 0.9241 in the training and testing phases, respectively. Experimental results also demonstrate that the developed hybrid SVM can be used as an alternate tool for estimating the ultimate IBS capacity of FRP concrete in civil engineering projects.