Performance Evaluation of an Improved ANFIS Approach Using Different Algorithms to Predict the Bonding Strength of Glulam Adhered by Modified Soy Protein–MUF Resin Adhesive

Abstract

Despite studies on the potential replacement of synthetic resins by bio-based adhesives such as proteins in recent years, there is still no reliable method for estimating the strength of wood products made using the combined parameters in the literature. This limitation is due to the nonlinear relationship between strength and the combined components. In the present research, the application of artificial intelligence techniques was studied to predict the bonding strength of glulam adhered by protein containing different ratios of MUF (melamine–urea–formaldehyde) resin with different F-to-U/M molar ratios at different press temperatures. For this purpose, the ANFIS artificial intelligence model was used as basic mode or combined with ant colony optimization (ACOR), particle swarm optimization (PSO), differential evaluation (DE) and genetic algorithms (GA) to develop an optimal trained model to predict the bonding strength of glulam based on experimental results. Comparison of the obtained results with the experimental results showed the ability of the above methods to estimate the bonding strength of glulam in a reliable manner. Although the basic ANFIS alone and in combination with other algorithms was not able to achieve an ideal performance prediction to estimate bonding strength, the combination of GA and ANFIS offered an excellent ability compared to the combination of other algorithms combined with ANFIS. Hence, the developed ANFIS-GA model is introduced as the best prediction technique to solve bonding strength problems of laminated products. In addition, using the developed optimal model, a precise attempt was made to show the nature of the parameters used to produce glulam and determine the optimum limit.