ANN-Based Inverse Goal-Oriented Design Method for Targeted Final Properties of Materials

Designing materials for targeted materials properties is the key to tackle the demands for personalized consumer products. The deficiency in the existing linear and nonlinear correlation methods attributed to simplifying assumptions and idealizations, nondeterministic simulations, and limited experimental data due to heavy computational time and cost, necessitates a design method that provides sufficient confidence to designers in decision making. To address this requirement, we propose, in this paper, an inverse goal-oriented materials design method supported by the design space exploration framework (DSEF). Keeping in view the accuracy and precision in the prediction confidence of machine learning-based methods, we developed an Artificial Neural Network based prediction model that supports DSEF. The proposed method for materials design can help designers to (1) explore PSPP spaces starting from end property requirements, (2) adjust the errors being propagated in the PSPP chain as well as in the predictions made by the model, and (3) timely adjust model parameters of the prediction model for accurate predictions. The efficacy of the method is illustrated for the hot stamping process to produce structural components from ultrahigh-strength steels (UHSS). The proposed method and prediction model are generic and applicable to any sequential manufacturing process to realize an end product.