its suitability as partial cement replacement in conventional concrete. The saw dust has
been acquired from a wood polishing unit. The physical, chemical and mineralogical characteris-
tics of WA is presented and analyzed. The strength parameters (compressive strength, split tensile
strength and flexural strength) of concrete with blended WA cement are evaluated and studied.
Two different water-to-binder ratio (0.4 and 0.45) and five different replacement percentages of
WA (5%, 10%, 15%, 18% and 20%) including control specimens for both water-to-cement ratio
is considered. Results of compressive strength, split tensile strength and flexural strength showed
that the strength properties of concrete mixture decreased marginally with increase in wood ash
contents, but strength increased with later age. The XRD test results and chemical analysis of WA
showed that it contains amorphous silica and thus can be used as cement replacing material.
Through the analysis of results obtained in this study, it was concluded that WA could be blended
with cement without adversely affecting the strength properties of concrete. Also using a new
statistical theory of the Support Vector Machine (SVM), strength parameters were predicted
by developing a suitable model and as a result, the application of soft computing in structural
engineering has been successfully presented in this research paper.