A Comparative Analysis on Prediction Performance of Regression Models during Machining of Composite Materials.

Modeling the interrelationships between the input parameters and outputs (responses) in any machining processes is essential to understand the process behavior and material removal mechanism. The developed models can also act as effective prediction tools in envisaging the tentative values of the responses for given sets of input parameters. In this paper, the application potentialities of nine different regression models, such as linear regression (LR), polynomial regression (PR), support vector regression (SVR), principal component regression (PCR), quantile regression, median regression, ridge regression, lasso regression and elastic net regression are explored in accurately predicting response values during turning and drilling operations of composite materials. Their prediction performance is also contrasted using four statistical metrics, i.e., mean absolute percentage error, root mean squared percentage error, root mean squared logarithmic error and root relative squared error. Based on the lower values of those metrics and Friedman rank and aligned rank tests, SVR emerges out as the best performing model, whereas the prediction performance of median regression is worst. The results of the Wilcoxon test based on the drilling dataset identify the existence of statistically significant differences between the performances of LR and PCR, and PR and median regression models.

Performance Analysis of Radial Basis Function Metamodels for Predictive Modelling of Laminated Composites.

High-fidelity structural analysis using numerical techniques, such as finite element method (FEM), has become an essential step in design of laminated composite structures. Despite its high accuracy, the computational intensiveness of FEM is its serious drawback. Once trained properly, the metamodels developed with even a small training set of FEM data can be employed to replace the original FEM model. In this paper, an attempt is put forward to investigate the utility of radial basis function (RBF) metamodels in the predictive modelling of laminated composites. The effectiveness of various RBF basis functions is assessed. The role of problem dimensionality on the RBF metamodels is studied while considering a low-dimensional (2-variable) and a high-dimensional (16-variable) problem. The effect of uniformity of training sample points on the performance of RBF metamodels is also explored while considering three different sampling methods, i.e., random sampling, Latin hypercube sampling and Hammersley sampling. It is observed that relying only on the performance metrics, such as cross-validation error that essentially reuses training samples to assess the performance of the metamodels, may lead to ill-informed decisions. The performance of metamodels should also be assessed based on independent test data. It is further revealed that uniformity in training samples would lead towards better trained metamodels.