In pursuit of a suitable machine learning algorithm for hardness prediction of aluminium alloy

Abstract

PurposeBecause of the mechanical properties of aluminium (Al), an accurate prediction of its properties has been challenging. Researchers are seeking reliable models for predicting the mechanical strength of Al alloys owing to the continuous emergence of new Al alloys and their applications. There has been widespread use of empirical and statistical models for the prediction of different mechanical properties of Al and Al alloy, such as linear and nonlinear regression. Nevertheless, the development of these models requires laborious experimental work, and they may not produce accurate results depending on the relationship between the Al properties, mix of other compositions and curing conditions.Design/methodology/approachNumerous machine learning (ML) models have been proposed as alternative approaches for predicting the strengths of Al and its alloys. The hardness of Al alloys has been predicted by implementing various ML algorithms, such as linear regression, ridge regression, lasso regression and artificial neural network (ANN). This investigation critically analysed and discussed the application and performance of models generated by linear regression, ridge regression, lasso regression and ANN algorithms using different mechanical properties as training parameters.FindingsConsidering the definition of the problem, linear regression has been found to be the most suitable algorithm in predicting the hardness values of AA7XXX alloys as the model generated by it best fits the data set.Originality/valueThe work presented in this paper is original and not submitted anywhere else.