Shrinkage and creep are the main concrete volume changes over time. This unacceptable concrete deformation leads to stress and cracks creation where eventually reduces the service life of concrete structures. According to this, the prediction of shrinkage and creep strain in concrete structures with acceptable accuracy is the significance essential. The extensive investigation accomplished by several researchers has created different relationships and models for forecasting of shrinkage and creep strain based on experimental and analytical observation. Despite effective efforts in this regard, existing models do not have sufficient accuracy for anticipate of shrinkage strain. According to this, in this research, it has been attempted to provide a shrinkage predicting model based on the artificial neural network technique with the application of RILEM database. Also, it has been tried to determine the accuracy of the proposed model in comparison to the existing standard models by statistical analysis. According to the obtained results, by application of the neural network technique, the shrinkage strain could be predicted with acceptable accuracy especial in the extended period.

The urgent requirement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions during Portland cement production and to enhance the durability of concrete in destructive environments are essential reasons to seek other alternative materials like alkaline activated binders. In this study, the feasibility of producing durable alkali-activated slag-based concrete under deteriorative environmental conditions was studied using 0, 10, 20, 30, and 40% of metakaolin (MK) and 0, 5, and 10% of silica fume (SF) instead of ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) and optimizing contents through the response surface method (RSM).To evaluate the performance of studied alkali-activated slag-based concrete in an aggressive environment, the permeability and the reduction in compressive strength of alkali-activated slag-based concrete under sulfuric acid attack have been investigated. In addition, the mass change of specimens after exposure was measured. The results indicate that replacing 40% of the slag with metakaolin and 10% with silica fume in alkali-activated concrete has reduced 9% and 34.9% of the compressive strength at 28 days, respectively. Also, increasing MK replacement up to 40% increased the water absorption to 27.8%, but 10% SF replacement reduced it to 17.7%. In addition, the alkali-activated slag-based concrete mass changes after 90 days of acid exposure were 2.3%, while the replacement of slag by 40% of MK and 10% of SF reduced this value to 1.14%. However, it improved the durability performance of alkali-activated concrete against sulfuric acid attacks.