Mechanical MNIST: A benchmark dataset for mechanical metamodels

Metamodels, or models of models, map defined model inputs to defined model outputs. Typically, metamodels are constructed by generating a dataset through sampling a direct model and training a machine learning algorithm to predict a limited number of model outputs from varying model inputs. When metamodels are constructed to be computationally cheap, they are an invaluable tool for applications ranging from topology optimization, to uncertainty quantification, to multi-scale simulation. By nature, a given metamodel will be tailored to a specific dataset. However, the most pragmatic metamodel type and structure will often be general to larger classes of problems. At present, the most pragmatic metamodel selection for dealing with mechanical data has not been thoroughly explored. Drawing inspiration from the benchmark datasets available to the computer vision research community, we introduce a benchmark data set (Mechanical MNIST) for constructing metamodels of heterogeneous material undergoing large deformation. We then show examples of how our benchmark dataset can be used, and establish baseline metamodel performance. Because our dataset is readily available, it will enable the direct quantitative comparison between different metamodeling approaches in a pragmatic manner. We anticipate that it will enable the broader community of researchers to develop improved metamodeling techniques for mechanical data that will surpass the baseline performance that we show here.Accepted manuscrip

Finite element quantitative analysis and deep learning qualitative estimation in structural engineering

In the past two decades, finite element method (FEM) has been widely used to study mechanics of solids, fluid–structure interactions, and building construction strategies. FEM has been rapidly grown all over the world due to development of computer technology. Computer has much more powerful computing capability than humans. However, structural engineering education not only focused on teaching engineers to use FEM as computation tool, but also concentrated on cultivating engineers’ capability of experience-based qualitative analysis. In addition, artificial intelligence techniques have been rapidly developed in recent years. It is demonstrated that human experience-based capabilities might also be replaced by deep learning methods in various game-playing areas. Thus, this study aims at exploring what role artificial intelligence techniques will play in the futural structural analysis area. In this paper, several finite element analyses are carried out for three representative boundary value problems, such as tightly stretched wires under loading, soil seepage, and plane stress. Corresponding deep neural networks are trained using FEM simulation data to quickly and accurately predict results of relevant problems. It is indicated that to some extent artificial intelligence technique might replace human experience-based qualitative analysis as a surrogate of FEM

A data driven deep neural network model for predicting boiling heat transfer in helical coils under high gravity

In this article, a deep artificial neural network (ANN) model has been proposed to predict the boiling heat transfer in helical coils under high gravity conditions, which is compared with experimental data. A test rig is set up to provide high gravity up to 11 g with a heat flux up to 15100 W/m 2 and the mass velocity range from 40 to 2000 kg m −2 s −1. In the current work, a total 531 data samples have been used in the ANN model. The proposed model was developed in a Python Keras environment with Feed-forward Back-propagation (FFBP) Multi-layer Perceptron (MLP) using eight features (mass flow rate, thermal power, inlet temperature, inlet pressure, direction, acceleration, tube inner surface area, helical coil diameter) as the inputs and two features (wall temperature, heat transfer coefficient) as the outputs. The deep ANN model composed of three hidden layers with a total number of 1098 neurons and 300,266 trainable parameters has been found as optimal according to statistical error analysis. Performance evaluation is conducted based on six verification statistic metrics (R 2, MSE, MAE, MAPE, RMSE and cosine proximity) between the experimental data and predicted values. The results demonstrate that a 8-512-512-64-2 neural network has the best performance in predicting the helical coil characteristics with (R 2=0.853, MSE=0.018, MAE=0.074, MAPE=1.110, RMSE=0.136, cosine proximity=1.000) in the testing stage. It is indicated that with the utilisation of deep learning, the proposed model is able to successfully predict the heat transfer performance in helical coils, and especially achieved excellent performance in predicting outputs that have a very large range of value differences