Prediction of residual stress in electron beam welding of stainless steel from process parameters and natural frequency of vibrations using machine-learning algorithms

In the present study, machine learning algorithms have been used to predict residual stress during electron beam welding of stainless steel using the information of input process parameters and natural frequency of vibrations. Accelerating voltage, beam current and welding speed have been considered as input process parameters. Both residual stress and natural frequencies of vibration of the weld obtained using each set of the input parameters are measured experimentally. A number of machine learning algorithms, namely M5 algorithm-based Model Trees Regression, Random forest, Support Vector Regression, Reduced Error Pruning Tree, Multi-layer perceptron, Instance-based k-nearest neighbor algorithm, and Locally weighted learning have been used for the said purpose. Support vector regression and Locally weighted learning are found to perform consistently good and bad, respectively. The predicted welding residual stresses have been validated experimentally through X-ray diffraction (XRD) and good agreements are obtained. In addition, statistical tests are conducted, and the estimated reliability values of the employed models are analyzed through Monte-Carlo simulations.