Enhancing Concrete Moisture Regulation with Thermally Modified Zeolite as a Partial Cement Replacement and MMGO-MLP Prediction

Indoor humidity regulation is important for building comfort, occupant health, and energy saving. Passive moisture-regulating concrete provides a low-energy solution; however, the moisture-regulating performance of thermally modified zeolite concrete and related prediction methods remain insufficiently studied. This study thermally modified natural clinoptilolite zeolite powder and used it as an equal-mass cement replacement. X-ray diffraction, moisture adsorption–desorption tests, and orthogonal design were employed to evaluate the modification effect and mixture parameters. A multilayer perceptron (MLP) enhanced using an adaptation of the Synthetic Minority Over-sampling Technique (SMOTE) and optimized by a mapping-improved Mountain Gazelle Optimizer (MMGO) was developed to predict unit-area moisture absorption. The novelty lies in integrating thermally modified zeolite concrete with an intelligent prediction framework. The results demonstrate improved moisture regulation of concrete and the potential of the proposed model for performance prediction. Further validation with larger independent datasets is required.