European Journal of Materials

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Application of deep neural network learning in

composites design

Yinli Wang, Constantinos Soutis, Daisuke Ando, Yuji Sutou & Fumio Narita

To cite this article: Yinli Wang, Constantinos Soutis, Daisuke Ando, Yuji Sutou & Fumio Narita
(2022) Application of deep neural network learning in composites design, European Journal of
Materials, 2:1, 117-170, DOI: 10.1080/26889277.2022.2053302

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/26889277.2022.2053302

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European Journal of Materials
2022, VOL. 2, NO. 1, 117–170
https://doi.org/10.1080/26889277.2022.2053302

Application of deep neural network learning in

composites design
Yinli Wanga,b , Constantinos Soutisc , Daisuke Andoa , Yuji
Sutoua,d and Fumio Naritae
a
Department of Materials Science, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University,
Sendai 980-8579, Japan; bDivision for Interdisciplinary Advanced Research and Education,
Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8578, Japan; cAerospace Research Institute, The University
of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK; dWPI Advanced Institute for
Materials Research, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan; eDepartment of Frontier Sciences
for Advanced Environment, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Tohoku University,
Sendai 980-8579, Japan

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

A timely review is presented on artificial intelligence Received 10 December 2021
(AI) and, more specifically, deep learning, which is a Accepted 9 March 2022
subfield of machine learning (ML), applied to the KEYWORDS
design and behaviour of modern composite materials Material design; topology
systems. The use of composites is increasing due to optimization; mapping;
their high specific strength and stiffness, which make neural networks; material
them comparable to metals, and their tunable prop- databases; damage
erties that can be altered to produce lightweight analysis; multiscale
materials with efficient structural configurations. modelling; material
property prediction;
Recent studies are examined and discussed, wherein
industrial internet of
computational tools have been developed that mimic things; Industry 4.0
human brain activity to answer questions and solve
challenging problems toward characterizing materials
behaviour and improving the performance of mate-
rials with less effort and cost. The attractiveness of
AI comes from its self-learning capability, the faster
computer processing time of large datasets, and the
potential to yield highly accurate results. However, as
a data-driven method, the quantity and quality of
data largely affect the accuracy of ML in addition to
the need for well-designed AI algorithms and virtual
reality models, hence the need to continue the
research efforts in this area.

CONTACT Constantinos Soutis [email protected] Aerospace Research

Institute, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK.; Fumio Narita
[email protected] Department of Frontier Sciences for Advanced Environment, Graduate
School of Environmental Studies, Tohoku University, Sendai, 980-8579, Japan.
© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any
medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
118 Y. WANG ET AL.

1. Introduction
Materials engineering has progressed in every field of activity, including
metallurgy, inorganic materials, and polymer science and engineering.
Recently, new alloys as lightweight innovative structural materials (Ogawa,
Ando, Sutou, & Koike, 2016) and phase change materials as low energy
non-volatile memories (Hatayama et al., 2018; Mori, Hatayama, Shuang,
Ando, & Sutou, 2020) have been developed, and much progress has been
made in technology for the design and evaluation toward functional
composite materials (Li et al., 2020; Wang, Yeo, Su, Wang, & Abdalla,
2020; Wang, Yeo, et al., 2020) and technology to detect the cracking or
damage of composite materials systems (Léonard, Stein, Soutis, & Withers,
2017; Takeda & Narita, 2017). Until recently, the development and char-
acterization of materials have mostly relied on the knowledge and expe-
rience of researchers rather than computing power.
Originally, computers were used by the United States (U.S.) military,
as their mathematical equations that needed to be solved were becoming
more complex, and would thus have required a costly labour force to
solve. Since this, computers have pervaded many aspects of daily life
over the years, with microprocessors having been embedded in many
household appliances and the use of personal computers becoming more
commonplace. It can now be said that the lives of humankind are inex-
tricably linked to computers. As computing speed and storage capacity
improved, scientists began to use computers more extensively in their
investigations. However, the use of computers in research is not limited
to the solving of linear mathematical calculations, as with many methods
having also been proposed to deal with nonlinear problems. To this aim,
artificial intelligence (AI) is a useful computational tool that can be used
to solve such nonlinear tasks as it mimics human brain activity to answer
questions and solve challenging problems.
Traditionally, to optimize performance, materials research has involved
a great deal of time-consuming and labour-intensive experimentation.
Experimental research is often aided by analytical and numerical mod-
elling to gain a better understanding of the measured data and the factors
affecting behaviour. In line with the advances made in technology and
computing power, more accurate methods and equipment have been
developed to facilitate research investigations. In particular, more accurate
information related to materials nano/microstructures can be obtained
using measurement and observation techniques, such as optical and
scanning electron microscopy (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry,
Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, and X-ray computed tomography
(CT). For this reason, the scale of research data is huge and not confined
 European Journal of Materials 119

to ordinary arithmetic data, involving rather multifarious data types. To

analyze that data and draw conclusions, many professional operators
would be required. Furthermore, it would be a waste of time and
resources if the data were not adequately analyzed and utilized.
Although there has not been widespread adoption of AI and machine
learning (ML), it appears that the time is ripe for this to happen due
to powerful computers now being readily available, in addition to the
big data and internet of things revolution. Furthermore, deep learning
has recently attracted much interest due to its faster processing time,
self-learning capability, and the potential to yield highly accurate results
(Amanullah et al., 2020). The distribution of publications about deep
learning in each subject area was investigated and is shown in Figure 1(a).
Apart from computer science itself, the applications of deep learning are
mostly associated with informative subjects where a large volume of data
need to be processed, such as mathematics, physics and astronomy, and
medicine. Benefiting from many successful applications, the barrier to
employing ML in materials science is lower than ever, as resources and
tools for machine learning become more abundant and easier to access
(Wei et al., 2019). As materials informatics have evolved from a niche
area of research into an established discipline, distinct frontiers have
come into focus, and best practices for applying ML to materials science
are emerging (Riley, 2019). In the field of materials science, composite
materials are extensively used as their performance is superior in many
aspects as a result of the thoughtful design and tailoring of their prop-
erties. However, from design to production many factors and parameters
need to be considered, thus countless attempts at their design and prepa-
ration are required to succeed. Consequently, a staggering amount of
information on the design of composites has been generated and collected
in various databases over the years. This information makes it possible
to significantly reduce the time and cost associated with the design,
development, and evaluation of composite materials, by utilizing com-
puter-calculated materials databases and ML to simulate the properties
of the materials. Figure 1(b) illustrates the number of publications related
to composite materials published per year, which provide valuable data
for taking advantage of deep-learning techniques.
The application of deep learning in the optimization and prediction
of the properties of composite materials systems is graphically shown
in Figure 2, with this research article focusing on the training dataset,
algorithm, and output data, which are the three basic operational steps
of deep learning involved in analyzing the properties of materials. In
terms of the training dataset, it is expected that researchers observe,
understand and collect, becoming aware of the usage potential of data
120 Y. WANG ET AL.

Figure 1. Subject areas of deep learning publications on SCOPUS, January 2022.

(a) The distribution of publications about deep learning in each subject area (b)
The number of publications related to composite materials published per year
(https://www.scopus.com/search/form.uri#basic).

Figure 2. The application of deep learning in composite materials science.

generated during the experimental process. Researchers may realize that

well-informed AI algorithms can solve design problems more effectively
than traditional methods after becoming familiar with the entire appli-
cation process. A brief introduction to deep learning, including devel-
opment and some fundamental knowledge is presented, followed by a
review of several applications in composite materials science; the pre-
diction of properties, data processing, and composite materials design
(topology optimization) are discussed. Finally, progress and limitations
that ML faces in the development of composite materials and factors
related to this are presented, with some suggestions made for future
research.
 European Journal of Materials 121

2. Deep learning
2.1 Development of deep learning
Deep learning has emerged from research on AI and ML, Figure 3
(Kelleher, 2019). There has been fascination as to when programmable
computers could become as intelligent as a human brain, process infor-
mation, and deal with complex problems (Goodfellow, Bengio, &
Courville, 2016). As the human brain is capable of dealing with vast
amounts of data and solving problems based on long-term knowledge,
for this reason a computer needs to capture valid knowledge from an
enormous amount of informal information. To simulate human deci-
sion-making and reasoning processes, AI aims to program intelligence
into machines by promoting them to learn from experiences and adapt
to changes in their environment (Muthukrishnan et al., 2020). In the
early days of AI, some problems in relatively simple environments were
rapidly solved using a list of formal, mathematical rules because the
computer did not require much knowledge about the entire world. For
example, the Deep Blue chess-playing system was the first example of
a computer system that outsmarted a human, defeating a reigning world
champion in a chess match under standard tournament time controls
(Saletan, 2007). However, chess is a relatively simple environment, con-
taining only 64 locations and 32 pieces that can move in specific ways.

Figure 3. The relationship between AI, ML, and deep learning (Kelleher, 2019).
122 Y. WANG ET AL.

The movement of the game pieces can thus be governed by a set of

formal rules after an appropriate strategy has been devised.
However, many problems in the real world are too complex to be
described by such simple rules, meaning that AI systems must learn
from raw data patterns. This capability is known as ML, which is a
subset of AI, where the ML algorithms are designed to optimize the
performance of a certain task using examples and/or experience (Alpaydin,
2014). Training and inference are the two steps of ML. An algorithm
processes a dataset during training and selects the function that best
matches the data patterns, with the model fixed once training is com-
pleted. The model is then used to infer new values from new examples
in the inference stage. The concept of a function as a deterministic
mapping from inputs to outputs is introduced, and the goal of ML is to
find a function that matches the mappings from input features to the
output features that are observed in the examples in the dataset. Several
factors make ML tasks difficult to learn, even with the assistance of a
computer. ML is an ill-posed problem when the set of possible functions
exceeds the set of examples in the dataset: the information given in the
problem is insufficient to find a single best solution; instead, multiple
possible solutions will match the data.
Deep learning was introduced as a subfield of ML that focuses on the
design and evaluation of modern neural network training algorithms and
model architectures. Figure 4 presents the evolution of deep learning,
where in the early years it was not “deep,” since it just used a simple
activation function to define the output of a node given an input or set

Figure 4. History of deep learning over the years (Kelleher, 2019).

 European Journal of Materials 123

of inputs. It only had a single layer (a layer is a structure or network

topology in the architecture of the model), which took information from
previous layers and then passed information to the next layer. After the
“Exclusive Or” (XOR) problem was raised by Minsky and Paper in 1969,
it was realized that many problems could not be solved using a single
linear function. As a result, by connecting various function layers, con-
nectionism was used to solve linear problems. As more function layers
are required to connect and solve the problem as a result of the rise of
big data and increased problem complexity, models are becoming more
sophisticated. All this accomplished deep learning is thus capable of
making accurate data-driven decisions by thinking with the “mind power”
of a group of human experts.
ML algorithms are machine-like, meaning that they still require human
intervention to be capable of fulfilling their designed purpose. In tradi-
tional ML techniques, most features need to be extracted by a domain
expert to reduce the complexity of the data and make patterns more
visible for algorithms to work. The greatest advantage of deep-learning
algorithms is that they can learn categories incrementally through their
hidden layer architecture, progressing from low-level to higher-level cat-
egories. They can also automatically extract features and classify datasets
for further processing in practice, eliminating the need for domain exper-
tise and hardcore feature extraction. Another advantage of deep learning,
and a key factor in understanding why it is becoming popular, is that
it is powered by massive amounts of data. As the amount of data col-
lected grows, the performance of older learning algorithms grows and
stabilizes until it reaches a certain point. The performance of deep-learning
will thus improve in line with data growth. Correspondingly, in con-
trast to traditional ML, deep learning requires a high-performance
processor and sufficient time to train models due to the large numbers
of parameters involved. Deep-learning algorithms, such as, for example,
the popular residual network algorithm, take around 2 weeks to train
from scratch, whereas traditional ML algorithms take just a few seconds
to a few hours to train. Surprisingly, this scenario is reversed in the
testing phase, where the deep-learning algorithm takes much less
time to run.

2.2 Fundamentals of deep learning

Deep learning refers to a class of neural network models that contain
multiple layers of simple information-processing programs, referred to
as neurons. Figure 5 illustrates the structure of a simple neural network,
where the squares in the input layer represent locations in memory that
124 Y. WANG ET AL.

Figure 5. Topological illustration of a simple neural network.

are used to present inputs to the network and are excluded when the
depth of the deep-learning model is taken into consideration. The infor-
mation-processing neurons in the network are represented by circles in
the diagram. Each of these neurons takes a set of numeric values as
input and maps them to a single output value. The arrows in Figure 5
indicate how information flows through the network from the output of
one neuron to the input of another neuron. Each connection in a net-
work connects two neurons and each connection is directed, which means
that information flows only in one direction. Each connection in a
network carries a weight that influences how a neuron processes the
data it receives. Searching for the best set of weights is the essence of
training an artificial neural network.
Deep-learning algorithms can be classified as either supervised or
unsupervised types of ML algorithms, and they can be used in both.
In supervised learning, each example in the dataset is labelled with
the expected output (or target) value. The most common type of
supervised ML is when the algorithm uses these target values in the
dataset to aid the learning process. However, the target feature values
are sometimes difficult and expensive to collect. As there is no target
value in the database in unsupervised learning, the algorithm cannot
compare the fitness of a candidate function to the target values of the
dataset. As a result, most data clustering is completed using unsuper-
vised ML. Other variants of the learning paradigm are possible. For
instance, in semisupervized learning, some examples include a super-
vision target but others do not. In multi-instance learning, an entire
collection of examples is labelled as containing or not containing an
example of a class, but the individual members of the collection are
not labelled.
 European Journal of Materials 125

As the dataset will be inserted into a neural network there is a need

to understand how an artificial neuron processes information. Figure 6
illustrates the structure of an artificial neuron that receives n inputs [x1,
x2… xn] from n different input connections, where each connection has
an associated weight [w1, w2… wn]. To map inputs to output, a neuron
uses a two-stage process, the first of which involves calculating a weighted
sum, z, of the inputs of the neuron, which can be written as:

n
z x  w
i 1
i i

The result of the weighted sum is then passed through a second

function that maps the weighted sum score to the final output value of
the neuron. When designing a neuron, various functions can be used,
which can be as simple as an “add” function or may be more complex.
Typically, the output values of a neuron are known as its activation
values, so this second function, which maps from the result of the
weighted sum to the activation values of the neuron, is known as an
activation function (φ in Figure 5). The z value, the result of the weighted
sum, is then passed through an activation function in the second stage
of processing within a neuron. Some neurons in a neural network may
use activation functions that are different from those used by other

Figure 6. The structure of an artificial neuron.

126 Y. WANG ET AL.

neurons. In brief, the calculation of the output activation of this neuron

can be summarized as:

n
output estimated  activation _ function  (z  x  w )
i 1
i i

Deep-learning networks are composed of large numbers of simple

processing units that work together to learn and implement complex
mapping from large datasets. Once the output value is calculated, the
error can be calculated by subtracting the estimated output from the
correct output for the example listed in the dataset, as:

error  output correct  output estimated

Based on this error value, the weights for the model are then adjusted
for the next calculation to find the optimal set of weights.

2.3 Commonly used neural networks

Over the years, researchers have come up with amazing improvements
on the original idea of deep learning, with each new architecture targeted
on a specific problem and being improved upon in terms of accuracy
and speed. A range of neural networks will be briefly explained in this
section for later analysis in terms of different applications.
An artificial neural network (ANN), simply referred to as a neural
network, is a computing system inspired by biological neural networks,
which is based on a multilayer of the neurons that were introduced in
the previous section. A shallow neural network is a network with 12 or
fewer hidden layers. Deep neural networks (DNNs), which are the basic
architectures of deep learning, become deeper as the numbers of layers
increase. Neural networks are classified as feedforward neural networks
(FFNNs) or backpropagation neural networks (BPNNs), according to the
direction of information transfer.
Fully connected FFNNs, also known as DNNs, are supervised neural
networks that are suitable for most classification tasks. However, in
reality, it is difficult to support a fully connected FFNN due to the huge
demands required in its implementation. Comparatively, convolutional
neural networks (CNNs) add convolution and pooling layers before fully
connected layers, where only a handful of neurons connect with the
next ones. In a way, CNNs attempt to regularize FFNNs to avoid over-
fitting, which makes them very good at identifying spatial relationships
 European Journal of Materials 127

between data (Lecun, Bottou, Bengio, & Haffner, 1998). That is why
their primary use is in computer vision and applications such as image
classification, video recognition, medical image analysis, and self-driv-
ing cars.
Traditionally, in an aforementioned neural network of FFNN, the
outputs of previous layers are used as inputs of the next layers. Recurrent
neural networks (RNNs) are FFNNs with interesting loops, where neurons
are fed information not just from the previous layer but also from them-
selves in each step, allowing information to persist (Elman, 1990). In
this way, the neurons can recall past data and use it to make predictions.
Furthermore, the more computation that is conducted in RNNs, the
higher the volume of information gathered, and in addition, the model
size does not increase in line with the input size. Hence, these networks
are perfect for time-related data and are used in various fields, such as
in image captioning, time-series analysis, natural-language processing,
handwriting recognition, and machine translation. To improve perfor-
mance and avoid the vanishing gradient problem of RNNs, which causes
information to be lost rapidly over time, a more complex structure,
involving long short term memory (LSTM) units and gated recurrent
units (GRUs), must be devised to remember more data. LSTM units have
been used extensively in natural-language processing in tasks such as
language translation, speech generation, and text-to-speech synthesis.
A generative adversarial network (GAN) is a type of network with
two main components: a generator that generates fake data and a dis-
criminator that learns from that data. During the training period, the
generator becomes increasingly better at generating images, as its ultimate
goal is to fool the discriminator. As its goal is not to be fooled, the
discriminator then gradually improves its ability to distinguish between
fake and real images. As a result, the fake data of the generator becomes
incredibly realistic and this data is used to complement expensive real
data labelled by experts. In contrast, GANs are challenging to train
because they require not only the training of two networks but also the
balance of their dynamics. Because there is inherent divergence, the GAN
will not converge if prediction or generation becomes too good compared
to the other (Goodfellow et al., 2014).
A Hopfield network (HN) is a network where every neuron is con-
nected to every other neuron, which is a completely entangled plate of
spaghetti as even all the nodes function in relation to all the others.
Before training, each node is input, then hidden during training, and
then output (Hopfield, 1982). Boltzmann machines (BMs) are similar to
HNs, except that some neurons are labelled as input neurons while others
are left unlabelled (Hinton & Sejnowski, 1986). Restricted Boltzmann
128 Y. WANG ET AL.

machines (RBMs) are remarkably similar to BMs and therefore also

similar to HNs, in that none of them have an output layer. RBMs, how-
ever, are easier to train due to more constraints, such as the neurons
not being connected to the same input group or hidden neurons
(Smolensky, 1986). RBMs are stochastic neural networks that can learn
from a probability distribution over the data they have been fed, and
they have found uses in regression, collaborative filtering, feature learning,
and even many-body quantum mechanics. RBMs are still used occasion-
ally in deep learning, but GANs or variational autoencoders have largely
replaced them.
An unsupervised ANN, referred to as an autoencoder (AE), learns
and understands how to compress and encode data efficiently. The image
is first encoded, then the input is reduced to a smaller entity by the AE.
Finally, the image is reconstructed via decoding. A feature of AEs is that
the entire network always resembles an hourglass-like shape, with the
hidden layers being smaller than the input and output layers (Bourlard
& Kamp, 1988). In this way, the middle of the network can be used to
extract a representation of the input with fewer dimensions. In this way,
AEs are used for the purpose of the reduction of dimensions, in phar-
maceutical discovery, popularity prediction, and image processing.
Deep-learning and neural network algorithms are prone to overfitting
because of their relative increase in complexity. Furthermore, increased
model and algorithmic complexity can necessitate a significant amount
of computational time and resources. Given all of this, proper care must
be taken when leveraging AI algorithms to solve problems, including the
selection, implementation, and performance assessment of the algorithms
themselves. ANNs and the more complex deep-learning technique are
among the most capable AI tools for solving very complex problems and
for this reason will continue to be developed and leveraged in the future.

3. Applications of deep learning in composite materials

science
Deep learning can be described as a method for simulating the human
brain by creating a model that can learn from data, extract features, and
map those features and results. Three aspects need to be considered
when deep learning is applied to materials science research. To begin
with, the outcomes that need to be achieved must be identified, such as
the materials properties, structural shape or geometry, or component
geometry. Secondly, the type of data involved needs to be identified; are
the relationships between the data and results appropriate for learning?
Is there enough data to learn from? Finally, in terms of data mining,
 European Journal of Materials 129

forward learning, or backward learning, the type of method of learning

needs to be decided upon. These three considerations are applied to
composite materials, as discussed in the following.
As technology advances, different types of data storage in a computer
become available. From the initial simplest type of the 0/1 sequences,
data types are becoming complicated as image, audio, and oscilloscope
trace or photograph (oscillogram). On the one hand, images or audio
are more informative than traditional types, capable of storing larger
amounts of data. On the other hand, they are easy to be harmed by
artifacts, which are impurities in the images, or audio noise. Therefore,
the information that the data represents generally requires professionally
trained researchers to ultimately make decisions and come to conclusions.
Deep learning can be used in this situation to save money and avoid
human error by automatically accounting for nonlinear relationships
between raw data and output.
Due to the performance limitations of monolithic materials, synthetic
composite materials systems can be purposely designed to satisfy given
loading and environmental conditions encountered when in service.
However, composite data are harder to acquire because the circumstances
of both the fabrication and construction processes influence the selection
of the constituents and the properties of the composites. Additionally,
in the traditional design process of composites, due to many design
variables, several attempts have to be made to achieve the desired hygro–
thermo–electro–mechanical performance for minimum weight. Even
though there are analytical and numerical tools to accelerate the materials
design process, such as preliminary analytical models, detailed finite
element analysis calculations, or deeper molecular dynamics simulations,
the time and cost associated with high accuracy can be prohibitive.
However, over time, much research data have become available on the
internet and elsewhere, allowing deep learning to be used in compos-
ite design.

3.1 Prediction of properties

Composites are a combination of the properties of two or more materials
(constituents), and any two materials (metals, ceramics, polymers, elas-
tomers, and glasses) can be used. These materials may adopt different
geometries (particulate, chopped fibre, woven, unidirectional fibrous, and
laminate composites) to create a system with a property profile not
offered by any monolithic material. Mechanical design is often used to
improve the stiffness-to-weight ratio or strength-to-weight ratio or
improve the toughness of materials, while thermo–mechanical design is
130 Y. WANG ET AL.

used to reduce thermal expansion, maximize heat transfer, or minimize

thermal distortion. Many experiments have been devised to evaluate the
properties of materials under different environmental conditions under
static (tension, compression, shear, and bending), fatigue, creep, and
dynamic (impact, blast) loading because of their heterogeneous nature
and anisotropy to characterize their behaviour and confirm whether they
meet the requirement (Soutis, 2005).
Thousands of test samples must be meticulously prepared according
to international testing standards, significantly increasing production
costs. Furthermore, it is hard to evaluate and test the structural integrity
of the composite materials in use. As a result, developing appropriate
non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques that enable the determination
of residual strength properties and life becomes critical (Diamanti &
Soutis, 2010; Kessler, Spearing, & Soutis, 2002). Deep learning appears
to be an appealing tool to use to map these multifaceted relationships
and accurately predict long-term performance in composites design, where
the constituent characteristics and properties must be linked to the overall
materials system behaviour, to the component, and ultimately, structural
response.
Indeed, the emergence of big data has been one of the most critical
factors that has driven the rapid development of deep learning over the
last few decades. Massive datasets have become available due to the
proliferation of sensors and online scientific platforms, which provide
the necessary data to train neural network models and support new
applications in a variety of domains. For example, the fatigue behaviour
of a composite wind turbine blade is a very complex task because it can
be influenced by wind speed, light, moisture, and temperature exposure,
in addition to materials and loading condition variables. As a result,
fatigue testing must be performed to determine the stiffness evolution
of the blade. However, it is difficult to accomplish such testing for the
following reasons: 1) the test process is inconvenient due to the blade
size, 2) fatigue testing is costly and time-consuming, and 3) it is not
easy to deal with the large amount of data generated during the process.
With this type of problem, the deep-learning method becomes appealing
because the data can be used to train a neural network model to identify
critical design issues and effectively propose optimal solutions for the
operating conditions.

3.1.1 Ann based on the dataset of the experiment

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is one of the most widely used and valuable
polymers in the chemical industry. Products with different mechanical
properties can be obtained by varying the proportion of their constituents,
 European Journal of Materials 131

with the resultant materials being used in a variety of applications and

industries. However, due to the nonlinear nature of the relationship
between its composition and the resulting after-production properties,
predicting the production properties of PVC under specific operating
conditions is difficult. Altarazi, Ammouri, and Hijazi (2018) built a
detailed supervised feedforward ANN model (Figure 7) to predict and
optimize three properties of PVC composites (tensile strength, ductility,
and density) based on different weight percentages of the different com-
positions. Additionally, this model was also able to identify the optimal
weights of the ingredients of the composites to achieve any other desired
physical properties. To model this multi-input and multi-output relation-
ship, different training algorithms, activation functions, and ANN archi-
tectures were developed. However, there are 240 available datasets for
this study, which is not quite enough for a fully connected ANN model.
To increase the size of training datasets, the proposed modelling meth-
odology can be improved or extended by considering more datasets and
composite ingredients, or by combining the ANN with other optimization
models, such as a GAN.
Polycaprolactone (PCL) is a widely used polyester in the biomedical
and pharmaceutical fields, which is conventionally synthesized under
harsh conditions, such as high reaction temperature, long reaction time,
and using organic solvents. Also, PCL should be manufactured with
caution to avoid the release of toxic compounds, which may cause side
effects in users or organisms (Espinoza, Patil, San Martin Martinez,
Casañas Pimentel, & Ige, 2020). In a study by You and Arumugasamy
(2020), the effects of reaction temperature and time on PCL molecular

Figure 7. Schematic illustration of the ANN architecture (Altarazi et al., 2018). DOP
(Dioctyl Phthalate) and CPW (Chlorinated Paraffin Plasticizer) are plasticizers used in
the formation of PVC composites.
132 Y. WANG ET AL.

weight were studied for specified production goals using FFNN and
adaptive neural fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) methods. These models
can be used to predict the molecular weight (output) of the biopolymer
from enzymatic polymerization after the ANN has been trained with
operating temperature and polymerization time (input) datasets.
Comparison of the FFNN and ANFIS results proved that the ANFIS
model is better at prediction, achieving 99.99% accuracy of validation.
This is because the ANFIS model combines the advantages of the fuzzy
logic system and neural network learning so it can adapt and establish
a good relationship between the input variables and the molecular weight
of the PCL. Other similar research studies have been conducted, using
various ANN models to solve this type of nonlinear relationship problem
(Ashhab, Breitsprecher, & Wartzack, 2014; Muñoz-Escalona & Maropoulos,
2010; Velten, Reinicke, & Friedrich, 2000).
Li et al. (2019) proposed a model (as shown in Figure 8) to predict
the effective modulus of a shale sample, which is a complex heteroge-
neous composite consisting of multiple mineral constituents. The model
was trained using SEM images, which were then used to generate a
large number of stochastic samples using a stochastic reconstruction
method. The finite element method was used to calculate the labels of
the dataset, which are the moduli of the samples. In this study, a CNN
was trained on an ordinary desktop computer equipped with an i7-8700
CPU using 10,000 generated stochastic mesoscale shale samples. The
training was iterated for 100 cycles and took around 43 minutes to finish

Figure 8. Workflow of establishing a deep neural network for calculating shale

moduli (Li et al., 2019).
 European Journal of Materials 133

the training process, with this method having relatively high efficiency
compared to other deep-learning models or ML methods. Eventually,
the average prediction error was as low as 0.97%, which suggests that
the trained CNN model exhibits promising performance in predicting
the effective moduli of real shale samples. However, since all the labels
of the data are simulated, many factors have not been considered thor-
oughly, therefore meaning that the accuracy of this model still needs
to be confirmed.
Practically, SEM is mostly used as an auxiliary tool due to its insen-
sitivity to small differences in the degree of object characteristics eval-
uation as a result of limited observation areas. Carbon fibre (CF)
reinforced cement-based composites (CFRCs) are attractive for use in
future civil engineering applications because of their excellent mechanical
(Graham, Huang, Shu, & Burdette, 2013), electrical (Wang, Li, Li, Guo,
& Jiao, 2008), and thermal properties (Teomete, 2015). In research by
Tong, Gao, Wang, Wei, and Dou (2019), a deep-learning method was
proposed to characterize the CF morphology distribution in the CFRC
and predict the properties of the material. Ordinary Portland cement,
short-cut CFs, and mixing water were used to make the CFRC samples
in this study. Firstly, a modified CNN, of which fully connected layers
were replaced with deconvolutional layers (reverse process of convolution),
was used to segment X-ray images and characterize the CF morphology
distributions, as shown in Figure 9(a). Red, yellow, and green were used
to represent CF bundles, CF clustered areas, and uniformly dispersed
CF areas. Following that, based on the segmentation results, 3 D recon-
struction [Figure 9(b)] was applied to the samples. 3 D reconstruction
results provided visual and analyzable models, wherein the volumes and
changes of each component were presented, which were utilized to predict
resistivity and mechanical properties. However, using empirical equations
based on the CF morphology distribution to predict CFRC properties is
still difficult because even the same CF distribution in different slides
of the samples make a different contribution toward the CFRC properties,
which is for humans to define. The cascade deep-learning method pro-
posed in this work, a combined radial basis function (RBF) network and
fully convolution network, effectively coped with this problem and quan-
tificationally measured the contributions of the different CF morphology
distributions in terms of the effects that they had on the properties of
the CFRC, as a result of the ability for output feedback control of non-
linear systems using an RBF network (Seshagiri & Khalil, 2000).
In addition to SEM images and numerical values, other forms of data
can be utilized to train deep-learning models, such as spectra. A
deep-learning framework consisting of GAN and DNN was used by Tong
134 Y. WANG ET AL.

Figure 9. (a) Structure of a fully convolutional network. (b) 3D reconstruction of

samples based on the segmentation results (Tong et al., 2019).

et al. (2021) to characterize the hydration and dry shrinkage behaviour

of cement emulsified asphalt composites (CEACs). With the help of the
GAN component, which can generate SEM images and characterize the
hydration production and background in the microstructure of the
CEACs, the proposed framework is capable of mapping the design
 European Journal of Materials 135

parameters of the CEACs to their X-ray powder diffraction spectra and

SEM images. The proposed framework achieved the lowest errors in the
36 test groups using an ANN-based method with the same architecture
and training dataset. In a study by Ma et al. (2021), an accurate predic-
tion structure for the flank wear experienced by a milling tool when
machining TC18 titanium alloy was established by determining the tool
wear mechanism and determining the real-time milling force, as shown
in Figure 10. Comparing the images and values, the data of the signals
have an important feature in that they represent a dynamic process based
on time instead of static values, which can be perfectly solved using the
RNN-based method, since it can be used to process time-related data
by memorizing inputs of the neural networks. For this task, LSTM and
GRU were chosen in combination with a CNN to prevent backpropaga-
tion errors from disappearing and exploding due to memory constraints.
The predicted minimum values were all found to have errors of <8%,
demonstrating that the deep-learning method is a novel and promising
approach for the wear monitoring of online tools.

3.1.2 Deep learning based on theoretical data

Besides the methods for learning data from experimental data, the rise
of computer science has brought about the development of many

Figure 10. Outline of the prediction method (Ma et al., 2021). The raw forces data
were the milling force signals in the three directions of Fx, Fy, and Fz.
136 Y. WANG ET AL.

Figure 11. a) Final predicted and b) actual conductive heat transfer topologies (Lin
et al., 2019).

calculation methods, such as stochastic image reconstruction, finite ele-

ment, and 3 D reconstruction methods, which can be used to generate
enormous datasets. However, all these methods are based on complex
mathematical equations, thus making them extremely costly to compute.
Moreover, to maintain sufficient accuracy, tasks as a whole are in general
finely divided into elements for calculation, which may take a long time.
Therefore, this is another area in which the deep-learning method is
expected to help reduce calculation time.
In some situations, conductive heat transfer methods, such as embed-
ding conduit materials with a high thermal conductivity into substrate
materials with a much lower thermal conductivity to act as cooling
channels are used (Dbouk, 2017). Thermal conductivity is a significant
thermophysical property of any composite material. Generally, experi-
ments are carried out to study the heat transfer process in composites.
Extensive trial and error testing, however, is prohibitive due to issues
such as the cost of experiments and uncertainties in measurement pro-
cesses. To investigate the capacity of ML methods for heat transfer
analysis, Wei, Zhao, Rong, and Bao (2018) created a database containing
the properties and structures of composites generated using a quartet
structure generation set, and applied the lattice Boltzmann method to
calculate the effective thermal conductivity of the materials. In a study
by Rong, Wei, Huang, and Bao (2019), in consideration of it being more
convenient to obtain 2 D images compared to 3 D images, 2 D cross-sec-
tional images and 2 D CNNs (a set of CNN structures) were used to
predict the effective thermal conductivity of 3 D composite materials.
Using multiple cross-sectional images along or perpendicular to the
preferred directionality of the fillers in the materials, the results showed
that 2 D CNNs can provide a relatively accurate prediction of thermal
conductivity. In addition to the prediction of thermal conductivity,
 European Journal of Materials 137

several topology optimization (TO) methods have been developed for

designing the layout of cooling channels, including the constructal theory
(Bejan, 2015), level set (LST) method (Yaji, Yamada, Kubo, Izui, &
Nishiwaki, 2015), phase-field method (August et al., 2015), variable thick-
ness method (VTM) (Chiba, 2012), homogenization method (HDM)
(Zhou & Li, 2008), evolutionary structural optimization method (Ansola,
Veguería, Canales, & Alonso, 2012), and solid isotropic material with
penalization method (Marck, Nemer, Harion, Russeil, & Bougeard, 2012;
Page, Dirker, & Meyer, 2016). Lin, Liu, and Hong (2019) proposed a
novel supervised deep-learning predictor (SDLP) to directly infer and
predict the optimal layout of cooling channels. The resulting predictor
is made up of an encoder and a decoder-like autoencoder, with the goal
of the encoder being to reduce the dimensionality of the input data by
encoding it into an intermediate variable, and the goal of the decoder
being to decode the intermediate variable into a topological structure
that describes conductive heat transfer. The physical parameters describ-
ing the cooling problem to be optimized, such as the boundary and
constraint conditions, were then used as input for the deep-learning
predictor, with the final predicted and actual conductive heat transfer
topologies shown in Figure 11. As depicted, the prediction of the main
branches is accurate, but some tail ends are missing, which suggests
that the accuracy still needs some further improvement. Furthermore,
some unreasonable structures, such as disconnected sections, were gen-
erated as a consequence of the application of a coarse grid and the
chosen filtering technique. If the grid size were smaller, the structure
would be much smoother and finer, with no disconnected sections.
These points highlight some of the inherent flaws of SDLPs, such as
the fact that errors are unavoidable due to the reduction in dimension
size compared to raw images. In addition, the TO algorithm was exe-
cuted 10,000 times to create the training dataset, which resulted in the
consumption of a large amount of time in terms of both the data gen-
eration process and training period. After these, the elapsed time from
input to output was in the order of 1.837 s, which is almost instantaneous.
Using the mechanics of structure genome (MSG) and fully connected
DNN, Liu, Gasco, Goodsell, and Yu (2019) proposed new failure criteria
for fibre tows based on a micromechanical model. In addition, benchmark
results from a meso microscale coupled model were used to verify the
accuracy and efficiency of the proposed model. The database for this
study, containing 3,000,000 samples, was generated by microscale failure
analysis based on an MSG solid model. The results indicated that the
proposed model is in good agreement with the benchmark results, while
the traditional failure criteria show a significant loss of accuracy in some
138 Y. WANG ET AL.

strength predictions. All computations were carried out on a single CPU

on the same Windows system workstation. The failure criteria took the
DNN model 8.3 h to build, including the sampling and MSG microscale
analysis. Compared to traditional MSG microscale analysis, the calculation
time for determining the strength constants under six loading cases was
reduced from 8.1 to 0.32 h after the proposed criteria were used to
implement the DNN model.
Homogenization refers to the transfer of salient information from a
lower materials structure scale to a higher materials structure scale,
whereas localization is the process of transferring important information
from a higher materials structure (macro)scale to a lower materials
structure (nano)scale. Localization is critical in assessing or predicting
failure-related properties of composite materials. Many numerical
approaches have been used to address localization problems, such as
finite element method (FEM) through subdividing a large system into
smaller and simpler element to solve a problem (Aarnes, Krogstad, &
Lie, 2006; Luscher, Mcdowell, & Bronkhorst, 2010), iterative methods
employing Green’s functions, and fast Fourier transforms (FFTs) (Moulinec
& Suquet, 1998). Yang, Dai, Rao, and Chyu (2019) proposed a deep-learn-
ing model that can efficiently and accurately predict the microscale elastic
strain field of 3 D composites that have large differences in elasticity
between each component. Figure 12 shows the localization in hierarchical
multiscale modelling, wherein finite element simulations produced the

Figure 12. Localization in hierarchical multiscale modelling (Yang, Dai, et al., 2019).

 European Journal of Materials 139

datasets in this study. In assessing or predicting failure-related properties

of composite materials, the aforementioned localization process is crucial.
In addition, there are other investigations (Mendizabal, Márquez-Neila,
& Cotin, 2020; Qi, Zhang, Liu, & Chen, 2019) that have been conducted
using both deep-learning and finite element methods.
As evidenced by the examples presented in this section, deep-learning
technology is already being used in materials research to predict the
properties and thermo–mechanical behaviour of materials under a vari-
ety of experimental conditions based on materials compositions, micro-
structure images, numerical experimentation, or indirect measurement
results.

3.2 Data processing

Even though continuous improvements are being made to equipment to
ensure that they are more accurate, there is still a need for professionally
trained and qualified personnel to analyze the gathered data. From the
raw data of electron microscope tests, ultrasonic tests, and thermography,
for example, it is difficult to quickly determine and identify all critical
aspects. The analysis of these data therefore take a long time due to
their volume and complexity. Worse still, human errors made throughout
the process reduce the accuracy of the results, especially for something
that is difficult to distinguish with the naked eye. For this purpose, a
deep-learning algorithm can utilize known data to train a model, making
it possible to excavate and memorize intrinsic features of given data, and
then recognize these features from a new unknown dataset.
Composite materials are emerging to meet the high requirements of
a variety of fields. Similarly, the complexity of composites causes a slew
of problems in their manufacturing and in-service inspection processes.
During the manufacturing process of composites, microcracks, fibre
breakage, voids, porosity, delamination, and inclusions are all common
occurrences (Le, Pham, & Lee, 2021). These defects may lead to serious
accidents and casualties depending on the intended applications of the
composites. To evaluate composite materials, ultrasonic, thermographic,
infrared thermographic, radiographic, visual detection, acoustic emission,
acoustic-ultrasonic, stereographic, optical, electromagnetic, liquid pene-
trant, and magnetic particle testing can all be used. To reduce the effects
of operator subjectivity and improve defect detection efficiency, methods
based on modern computer vision, particularly deep learning, are used
to detect defects in composite materials. Many different types of research
on using deep-learning techniques to process detection data will be
introduced in this section.
140 Y. WANG ET AL.

3.2.1 Crack detection

Gong, Shao, Luo, and Li (2020) proposed a deep transfer learning model
that accurately extracts features from unlabelled X-ray images of aerospace
composite materials (ACMs) for the inclusion of defects. The proposed
deep transfer learning model is made up of four modules: a feature
extractor, a label classifier, a domain classifier, and distance metrics. The
feature extractor uses the model trained using these four modules to
obtain domain-invariant features, and the label classifier undergoes the
same process to achieve good inclusion defect detection performance.
To demonstrate the benefits of this model, comparison experiments were
conducted using the same ACM X-ray image samples using four widely
used methods: ANN, DANN, a conscious neighbourhood-based crow
search algorithm, and a deep convolutional transfer learning network.
The proposed models exhibited an accuracy of 96.8%, exceeding the
performance of the other models. As shown in Figure 13, inconspicuous
inclusions can be detected by this model, and the corresponding heat
map results can also be shown for reference after the automatic process.
Furthermore, this model is real-time, with a detection time of 0.24 s for
a single ACM X-ray image of a common size.
Aside from inclusions, crack formation is the other important factor
that greatly influences the functions of structures and leads to serious

Figure 13. Inclusion defect detection using a sliding-window approach: (a) X-ray

image of an ACM with inclusion defects; (b) corresponding heat map results; and
(c) detection results without a heat map (Gong et al., 2020).
 European Journal of Materials 141

consequences. In terms of macrostructures, many architectures are suf-

fering crack propagation and thus caused safety risk. For instance of
Nowak (2012), 40% of the 570,000 bridges in the USA have been clas-
sified as deficient, requiring rehabilitation or replacement, at an estimated
cost of 50 billion dollars. Civil structures and infrastructures, such as
bridges, tunnels, buildings, dams, and roads, are prone to damage due
to various mechanisms related to mechanical loading, chemical processes,
and environmental action. As field evaluation is costly and inconvenient,
several structural health monitoring techniques have been proposed for
detecting, locating, and monitoring such damage. Visual inspection has
been the most widely used method for monitoring concrete structures
that are in service. A study by Flah, Suleiman, and Nehdi (2020) pro-
posed a nearly automated inspection method based on image processing
and deep learning for detecting defects in typically inaccessible areas of
concrete structures. In the training datasets in this study, 20,000 images
of cracked concrete structures and 20,000 images of structurally sound
concrete structures were included. After CNN classification and segmen-
tation, the dimensions of the cracks, such as length, width, and angle,
were calculated. The failure mode was then predicted, and the extent of
the damage was assessed. Finally, a comprehensive evaluation of the
cracks was achieved. For a typical CPU processor, the training time for
this network was 2–3 h, with a recorded testing accuracy of ≥98.15%,
according to the classification analysis. Finally, unlike the reported com-
parable current state-of-the-art methods, the proposed approach demon-
strated its computation efficiency and prompt performance, but damage
recognition and quantification were time-consuming tasks. This research,
however, is not without flaws. For example, when comparing one single
crack pattern per image to a group of cracks, the prediction results are
frequently overestimated. Similarly, Zheng, Lei, and Zhang (2020) pro-
posed other different building crack detection models (convolutional
networks) to analyze the surface data of roads, bridges, houses, and dams.
A richer fully convolutional networks model based on image recognition
exhibits the best processing effect, with higher degrees of recognition,
accuracy, and precision, as well as better stability, according to this
investigation. Aside from cracks on buildings, Huang et al. (2020) pre-
sented an intelligent surface damage detection method based on a CNN,
which has powerful learning ability and can automatically extract dis-
criminant features via training on surface images of steel wire rope. The
use of more layer connections and neuron learning units in common
fully connected CNN models usually results in better learning ability.
However, this may exacerbate the problem of overfitting. The “dropout”
function (Srivastava, Hilton, Krizhevsky, Sutskever, & Salakhutdinov,
142 Y. WANG ET AL.

2014), which allows neurons in the training process to be randomly

inactivated according to a dropout ratio, was introduced in this study
to solve this problem and improve the training efficiency and general-
ization ability of the model. In addition, by normalizing all the input
features, a batch normalization method (Loffe & Szegedy, 2015) was used
to speed up the deep learning. As a consequence, the intrinsic limitations
of the manual feature extraction methods were not only overcome, but
outstanding accuracy of 99% was achieved, a performance better than
those of other conventional ML methods.
Depending on their width, length, and propagation, a collective pattern
of microcracks can lead to the formation of macrocracks associated with
the catastrophic breakage of the structural unit (Ohno & Ohtsu, 2010).
Problematic cracks must be identified before secondary measurements
or final improvement and processing to avoid any negative consequences.
Issues can be effectively avoided if future crack propagation can be pre-
dicted. Cracks can range in size from internal microcracks to large
(macroscale) cracks, and their origins and classifications are varied and
complicated. Macroscale cracks can be formed either through the col-
lective motion of existing microcracks or through external factors, such
as inappropriate construction onsite practices, errors in structural design
and detailing, and excessive interactions in hostile environments (Landis,
1999; Walker, Lane, & Stutzman, 2004). The visual inspection of cracks
takes time and can be subjective depending on the experience and skill
of the inspector, as evidenced by the misclassification of small and noisy
cracks. In the study of Hwang et al. (2019), loess/water mixtures were
chosen as a model system that generate sufficient data on cracks that
form as a result of water evaporation. In addition, as deep-learning model
was used to detect and classify the edges and nodes of cracks that formed
during the drying stage of the loess/water mixture system, as shown in
Figure 14, using the MATLAB implementations of the AlexNet and Yolo
object detection algorithms. High-precision crack detection was imple-
mented using topology network-based analysis, with a focus on infor-
mation of the connectivity between neighboring nodes, based on the
predetermined information of nodes and edges. The total training using
RGB-based and binary images was completed in 8 min 20 sec and 9 min
12 sec, respectively. Moreover, the training procedure was successfully
carried out until the accuracy reached 99%. Consequently, this method
is fast, reliable, and is an objective approach with high precision for
understanding crack formation and propagation from both qualitative
and quantitative aspects.
In addition to these studies, other formats of datasets from different
composite materials systems have also been used to build deep-learning
models for crack detection. Yang, Chen, Wang, and Wang (2021)
 European Journal of Materials 143

Figure 14. Crack-containing images (a, c, and e) and crack length distributions (b,
d, and f ) obtained from the loess/water composite material as a function of time
(or drying time or water lost): (a) and (b) immediately after sample preparation
(Stage I), (c) and (d) the intermediate stage (Stage IV), and (e) and (f ) the final stage
(Stage VI) (Hwang et al., 2019).

developed an acoustical crack detection model for carbide anvil using a

deep-learning method, which plays a significant role in producing syn-
thetic diamonds. Rather than using normal crack digital images to train
deep-learning models, this study used acoustic signals expressed as sound
impulses to build a detection system. When faced with complex sound
144 Y. WANG ET AL.

impulses, the shallow ANN technique can result in poor representation

(Khatir et al., 2020; Tran-Ngoc, Khatir, De Roeck, Bui-Tien, & Abdel
Wahab, 2019). In addition, if the network is too deep the training process
will become difficult and easy to overfit. Compared to ANN-based mod-
els, a stacked autoencoder (SAE) (Zenzen, Khatir, Belaidi, Thanh, &
Abdel Wahab, 2020) exhibits stronger nonlinear expression ability due
to its increased number of network layers and can discover useful hier-
archical feature representations. Furthermore, hyperparameters are regu-
larized using dropout and weight decay coefficient methods to improve
generalization ability and overcome the flaws of the SAE model, namely
information loss. As a result, the proposed acoustic detection method,
which is based on an improved stacked autoencoder optimized by a
particle swarm optimization algorithm (SAE–PSO algorithm), can rec-
ognize cracked anvils in synthetic diamond workshops with greater accu-
racy than other algorithms.
Another popular NDT imaging technique is thermography, which detects
defection methods by observing heat patterns on a target material (Lu,
Wang, Qin, & Ma, 2017; Yang & He, 2016). The advantages of thermog-
raphy, such as short inspection time, no contact or coupling, and easy
interpretation of data, led to its recognition as standard practice for NDT
in the aerospace field by relevant organizations (Ciampa, Mahmoodi, Pinto,
& Meo, 2018; Yang, Choi, Hwang, An, & Sohn, 2016). However, the sur-
rounding environment limits its ability to detect defects over a large surface
due to thermal gradients, high demand for energy input as thermal stim-
ulation, and difficulties associated with uniformly heating a large area
(Busse, Wu, & Karpen, 1992; Lucchi, 2018). Moreover, NDT results obtained
by thermography are largely determined by inspectors, which means that
the quantitative information is inherently biased (Yang, Choi, et al., 2016).
Bang, Park, and Jeon (2020) prepared two types of CF composite
samples with artificial defects to obtain thermographic images and eval-
uate identification accuracy using a CNN-based model. A faster region-
based convolutional neural network, including a region proposal algorithm,
was used to reduce the computation time in the CNN. Instead of selecting
a large number of regions using sliding-window techniques in CNN,
specific regions are extracted and warped in a square as CNN input
images, resulting in increased efficiency. The performance of the proposed
system was evaluated by assessing its ability to identify defects, and
discussed in light of the average precision for the identification of defects.
Although some of the groups in the study showed promising accuracy,
the overall precision of the study was low due to a lack of data. By
training with more data obtained from a larger scale of practice, the
reliability of the system proposed can be further improved. Similarly,
Luo, Gao, Woo, and Yang (2019) labelled thermal optical pulsed
 European Journal of Materials 145

Figure 15. Process of labeling. a) One frame with the strongest defect information
is selected in the thermal sequence, confirmed by peers and a preparation map; b)
the data calibration tool -labelme is used to calibrate the defects of the frame image.
This process is confirmed by multiple peers; and c) a binary image is generated (Luo
et al., 2019).

thermography (OPT) images, as shown in Figure 15, to train a defect

detection system to increase accuracy. A hybrid of spatial and temporal
mathematical model can be used in the OPT system to express the
temperature field of the measured object as a function of space and time.
In this model, spatial and temporal information are represented and
processed by two types of networks respectively. To complete this task,
an AE-based model was used because the spatial information is extremely
complex and large. However, because temporal information is linked to
time, LSTM models are used to deal with it. The most appropriate
deep-learning network was used to achieve optimal performance based
on the characteristics of each task. Moreover, the probability of detection
(POD) was used to represent the detection effects of a model defined
as the proportion of the number of defects detected to all defects. After
feature extraction (labeling), the average POD of the principal component
analysis algorithm combined with the random color method was increased
by as much as 96%. Furthermore, when training sets and test sets contain
the same type of data, performance can be improved.

3.2.2 Semantic segmentation

Deep learning has also been used in the composite field for semantic
segmentation, which is a direct and visible application. Through integrated
semantic segmentation using image processing-assisted stereography tools,
detailed microstructural features can be quantitatively extracted automat-
ically and objectively without any human involvement, such as size dis-
tribution, surface (or equivalently, volume) fraction, length of two-phase
boundaries, and density of triple-phase boundaries based on 2 D images
(Bulgarevich, Tsukamoto, Kasuya, Demura, & Watanabe, 2018; Hagita,
Higuchi, & Jinnai, 2018; Modarres et al., 2017). Solid oxide fuel cells
146 Y. WANG ET AL.

(SOFCs) were once thought to be extremely complicated multicomponent

materials systems with porous electrodes, densified electrolytes intercon-
nects, and sealing materials, and have been hailed as one of the most
powerful next-generation energy conversion systems due to their high
efficiency, great fuel flexibility, and low pollution levels (Hwang et al.,
2019; Singhal, 2000; Ziatdinov et al., 2017). The implications of semantic
segmentation in SOFCs are discussed in consideration of the efficient
analysis and design of high-performance electrode structures in devices
for energy-related applications. Hwang et al. (2020) proposed a novel
approach in which semantic segmentation operations can be automated
based on a state-of-the-art deep-learning algorithm, named DeepLabV3+,
to minimize labour-intensive human involvement (Filippo, da Fonseca
Martins Gomes, da Costa, & Mota, 2021). The encoder is divided into
deep separation convolution and atrous spatial pyramid pooling layers,
and the decoder merges low-level features and performs feature map
recovery in Deeplabv3+. The proposed model is made faster and stronger
by the use of separable convolution, which significantly reduces the
computational complexity (Zeng, Peng, & Li, 2020). Different types of
images can be obtained to analyze different issues via automated seg-
mentation and parametric adjustment, as shown in Figure 16. Image
segmentation of phases is very effective for petrographic analysis in the
more complicated case of concrete because it saves not only a lot of
time but also a lot of money in terms of labour costs. Furthermore, this
process can alleviate concerns about operator subjectivity during the
repeated visual judgments of an inspector over several hours (Zhao et al.,
2000). Song, Huang, Shen, Shi, and Lange (2020) explored the potential
of using novel deep-learning techniques for the petrographic analysis of
concrete, with the results showing that the CNN involved is highly
accurate accuracy and exhibits a time advantage over conventional col-
or-based approaches. Furthermore, the CNN segmentation approaches
the quality achieved by human judgment in many of the cases presented
in this paper, but at a fraction of the time. CNN segmentations take
seconds to complete, with parameters being able to be computed almost
instantly using a simple program.
The process of phase boundary extraction is currently used to segment
the majority of data. The deep-learning method can recognize a variety
of features in addition to those listed above. Metallic nanoparticle com-
plexes, for example, have a strong relationship between their physico-
chemical and mechanical properties and the order and distribution of
their atomic structure. Although TEM can provide the highest spatial
resolution to an image of the nanoparticle’s atomic structure, it is
time-consuming and cumbersome to estimate atomic column height from
the 2 D projected TEM images. With the advancement of TEM techniques
 European Journal of Materials 147

Figure 16. Stereological analysis of resolved phase images for extracting microstruc-

tural parameters: (a) original electron microscopy image, (b) image inferred from
semantic-segmentation-assisted deep learning, (c) application of line intercepts to
binary data files, (d) two-phase boundaries between GDC, LSC, and pores, and (e)
the distribution of triple-phase boundaries (Hwang et al., 2020).

in the discovery of nanoscale science, it is critical to combine them with

AI and real-time TEM imaging methods. Ragone et al. (2020) presented
a modelling framework based on a deep-learning approach for detecting
the atomic column heights in high-resolution TEM images for different
sizes of gold nanoparticles. Moreover, 2 D images were processed and
reconstructed for the 3 D model for further calculation, in accordance
with published literature (Ali, Guan, Umer, Cantwell, & Zhang, 2020).
A dataset from both real and computer-generated virtual samples was
used to train a deep-learning network in this study. The real samples
148 Y. WANG ET AL.

were raw 3 D volumes reconstructed from CT images, whereas the virtual

samples were computer-generated geometrical representative volume ele-
ments. This work shows great potential for developing effective and
accurate segmentation procedures, enabling further prediction of mechan-
ical and structural properties and promising the optimization of manu-
facturing processes by paving the way toward smart manufacturing, after
being enhanced by the datasets of virtual samples.

3.3 Composite materials design (TO)

Both the prediction of properties and data processing discussed in the
last two sections are forward propagation processes, where neural net-
works map from input to output space. In contrast, searching for a
topological design involves inverse mapping from output to input space.
In the traditional optimization process, the optimization algorithm must
begin with an initial topology and run iterations until the optimal topol-
ogy is obtained. However, because it has no unique solution, this inver-
sion is an ill-posed problem. To put it another way, a specific output
can be derived from a variety of different inputs. As a result, finding
the patterns with the smallest loss function is the goal.
Over the years, several optimization techniques have been widely
used to determine the optimal shape and size of engineering structures
(trusses and frames) under different constraints (stress, displacement,
buckling instability, kinematic stability, and natural frequency) (Aykut,
2020). The most valuable tool for identification in the early stages of
the design process has proven to be the TO of structures, which is
widely used in the automotive and aerospace industries, as well as civil
engineering, materials science, and biomechanics, to design lightweight
structures (Bujny, Aulig, Olhofer, & Duddeck, 2016; Zhu & Gao, 2016).
TO offers the conceptual design of lighter and stiffer structures. With
the help of FEM software, it can also check the design from the per-
spective of its feasible design range, accuracy for different loads and
conditions, and consideration of the design and manufacturing
constraints.
TO offers a systematic platform for obtaining new designs of materials
and structural systems with optimized responses (Bendøse & Sigmund,
2003; Bendsøe & Kikuchi, 1988; Hofmeyer, Schevenels, & Boonstra,
2017; Ivarsson, Wallin, & Tortorelli, 2018; Li, Zhang, & Khandelwal,
2017). Both scientific and industrial interests have been piqued in the
pursuit of high-performance materials and lightweight structures (Abou-
Ali, Al-Ketan, Rowshan, & Abu Al-Rub, 2019; Michaleris, Tortorelli, &
Vidal, 1994). In general, components, volume fractions, and architectures
 European Journal of Materials 149

are used to create composite materials and structures. Due to the high
degree of design freedom, however, realizing this process and achieving
the optimal materials structure is difficult. Obtaining optimal nonlinear
structures is now possible thanks to cloud computing, ML, and simu-
lation. In addition, designing the architectures of materials is epoch-mak-
ing, since the obtained materials can possess unprecedented properties
not observed for natural materials. These properties include, but are
not limited to, a very high stiffness-to-weight ratio and negative Poisson’s
ratio (Ruzzene & Scarpa, 2005). TO aims to find the best materials
distribution that maximizes system performance while adhering to design
constraints (Vangelatos, Gu, & Grigoropoulos, 2019).
Metamaterials are gaining traction as promising materials with unique
architectures that exhibit tailorable and unprecedented properties for a
diverse range of applications. Due to the limitations of manufacturing
techniques in the past, producing complex geometries was difficult. The
fabrication of these materials with complex architectures has become
possible in recent years thanks to advances in additive manufacturing
(Bendsøe & Kikuchi, 1988; Bikas, Stavropoulos, & Chryssolouris, 2016;
Gardan, 2016), and while more advanced fabrication techniques provide
new opportunities for making such metamaterials, the optimization prob-
lem is still challenging (Alhammadi et al., 2020). Kollmann, Abueidda,
Koric, Guleryuz, and Sobh (2020) developed a deep-learning model which
can noniteratively optimize metamaterials by either maximizing the bulk

Figure 17. Flowchart showing the different steps used to develop a CNN-based

optimizer. It is used to identify optimal materials distributions of 2Dmaterials, trained
using TO data (Kollmann et al., 2020).
150 Y. WANG ET AL.

modulus, maximizing the shear modulus, or minimizing the Poisson’s

ratio. Figure 17 summarized the different stages of developing the CNN-
based optimizer. The CNN model in this study was based on ResUNet
(Zhang, Liu, & Wang, 2018) and made use of batch normalizations,
rectified linear units, and convolutional layers, which improved segmen-
tation accuracy by concatenating feature maps from different neural net-
work levels by taking advantage of residual learning and U-Net. The
proposed model takes three input images (filter radius rmin, volume
fraction Vf, and numeric identifier ID) and produces an output image.
The model trained over 150 epochs and took 9.1 h to complete the task.
As shown in Figure 18, the prediction result is very close to the ground-
truth image, implying that using this CNN model, quality TO can be
achieved almost instantly. Moreover, since this study is performed on a
low-end computing platform, there is low consumption of computing
power. Similar research has also been conducted by Xue, Wallin, Menguc,
Adriaenssens, and Chiaramonte (2020), who in addition to simulation,

Figure 18. Comparisons between optimized designs and truth values for the case
of minimizing the Poisson’s ratio under specific conditions (Kollmann et al., 2020).
The objective function and the volume of the optimized representative unit cells
obtained from the CNN model are compared with those of the ground-truth.
 European Journal of Materials 151

carried out the same experiment using a 3 D printing method to ensure

that their research was valid. This TO framework is reliable when com-
pared to experimental results and those generated by the deep-learn-
ing method.
In the same way, Abueidda, Koric, and Sobh (2020) developed a CNN
model to predict optimized designs for a given set of boundary condi-
tions, loads, and optimization constraints. Materials and geometric non-
linearities influence the optimal design, especially when applied loads
are sufficiently larger to trigger structural and/or materials nonlinearities

Figure 19. Demonstration of the different channels (Abueidda et al., 2020). (1) ux
with a dimension of 33 × 33, (2) uy with a dimension of 33 × 33, (3) Px with a
dimension of 33 × 33, (4) Py with a dimension of 33 × 33, and (5) Vf with a
dimension of 32 × 32. ux and uy matrices have zero components everywhere except
at the nodes at the left-hand side, where fixed boundary conditions are imposed,
with a value of 1 assigned. The Px and Py matrices have zero values everywhere
except at the node that has the load P applied. The output of each data is composed
of one channel, where the values of the different pixels (elements) are the densities
obtained from the optimization framework as the rightmost black V shape shown.
152 Y. WANG ET AL.

(Buhl, Pedersen, & Sigmund, 2000; Maute, Schwarz, & Ramm, 1998;
Osanov & Guest, 2016). In addition, to further evaluate the proposed
model, the case of a linear elastic material under stress constraint was
considered. Each point of input data can be viewed as five channels
(images), as shown in Figure 19, where Vf represents the volume fraction,
ux and uy are displacements of the x and y directions, respectively, and
Px and Py denote the vectors of load P, respectively. Finally, the optimal
design was validated in the ABAQUS environment by using the same
parameters to generate the mesh and assign the boundary conditions
and loads automatically. The supercomputer generated 18,000 data points,
where high-throughput computing was applied to generate as many as
10 data points simultaneously, with an average rate of data generation
of 0.31 min/data. The training process took 1.25 and 1.5 h for linear and
nonlinear cases, respectively. After this model was trained, it is available
for the corresponding optimized design once the material properties and
desired optimization parameters were specified. Ground-truth designs
were chosen at random and compared to their corresponding prediction
results for qualitative evaluation of this model. Based on the findings, it
was concluded that the developed models are stable and are in good
agreement with the outcomes of mathematically rigorous nonlinear TO
frameworks. However, around 90 min was required to solve a single
optimization task on a personal computer equipped with a CORE i5
processor.

Figure 20. Schematic workflow of the proposed design evaluation algorithm

(Zimmerling et al., 2019). After initial training of the model function µML, the geom-
etries of interest are scanned, relevant geometry features Ck are extracted, and
time-efficiently evaluated by the model function. If the Ck lies outside the range of
a previously sampled training data set Dn for the model function, Dn can be extended
by this additional sample.
 European Journal of Materials 153

Due to their promising mechanical properties, continuous fibre rein-

forced plastics (CoFRP) are attracting attention for use in industries that
require materials for weight-sensitive applications. To achieve the optimal
structure performance of CoFRP, the stacking sequences and fibre ori-
entations of the materials must be carefully adjusted. Moreover, defect-free
manufacture needs to be ensured, which is a challenging engineering
task with potentially competing goals. In the textile draping of the man-
ufacturing process, local defects may significantly reduce the load-bearing
capacity of the materials (Kärger et al., 2018), and the ill effects of man-
ufacture will be reflected during structural simulations conducted via
continuous chains of the virtual process (Kärger et al., 2015). In many
cases, manufacturing issues arise as a result of the poor design of com-
ponents rather than flawed process configuration (Dostaler, 2010). As a
consequence, consideration of manufacturing during component design
greatly contributes toward lean development and negates the need for
costly redesign loops. In research by Zimmerling, Dörr, Henning, and
Kärger, (2019), a component scale was studied by applying ML techniques
for the optimization of the formation of textiles and formation-related
composite design analysis. This research looked into the possibility of
applying ML techniques in assessing the formability of textiles in variable
geometries to obtain physically accurate predictions while maintaining
computational efficiency. Evaluation of the model function μML was
embedded in the workflow, as schematically illustrated in Figure 20. The
algorithm accepts the 3 D geometry of interest as an input and automat-
ically generates geometric features (corners) via scanning. Eventually,
design improvement is achieved through a set of parameters that can be
visualized for the design map. Accordingly, designers can explore more
design alternatives intuitively without the need for laborious and com-
putation-intensive FE simulations. For example, to create a corner design
map, 1116 function evaluations are required, whereas the ML model only
requires a total of 81 simulations for training and validation. Thus, the
simulation effort reduces to 81/1116 ≈ 7.2% compared to an entirely
FE-based computation. Aside from the completed ML model, optimization
of the manufacturing process parameters (structure) carried out using
the deep-learning method can also produce a surrogate model as part
of the FE simulations (Pfrommer et al., 2018), which highly improves
efficiency.
In large-scale industrial equipment, such as launch vehicles, missiles,
and aircraft, stiffened structures such as thin-walled load-bearing com-
ponents are widely used (Hao, Wang, & Li, 2012; Zhang, Chen, Shi,
Teng, & Zhou, 2016; Zhu, Zhang, & Xia, 2016). In particular, curvilinearly
stiffened panels have garnered significant attention due to their excellent
154 Y. WANG ET AL.

design flexibility (Hao et al., 2018; Vescovini, Oliveri, Pizzi, Dozio, &
Weaver, 2020; Wang, Abdalla, Wang, & Su, 2019). Although curvilinearly
stiffened panels have been proven to exhibit superior structural efficiency,
the explosion of design variables compared to traditional stiffened struc-
tures makes the design of such structures a challenging task (Liu et al.,
2020; Wang, Yeo, et al., 2020). Hao et al. (2021) proposed a novel struc-
tural layout optimization framework based on deep learning-based mod-
els. The image-based structural layout, which is characterized by
curvilinear stiffener paths, is used as a design variable, as opposed to
traditional design patterns that use various values of the parameter as
constraint conditions. CNNs are used to extract layout features from
curvilinear stiffeners and construct a surrogate model between layout
features and structural performance for this purpose. Since the flexibility
of the layout is extremely high, it is difficult to design a layout from
scratch. The AE model is adopted here since it can effectively reduce
dimensionality and be used to extract features via a backpropagation
algorithm to equate the output of the neural network. Each RBF and
Kriging remodeling takes only a few seconds during the optimization
process, whereas each CNN retraining and corresponding sub-optimiza-
tion takes around 5 min. Considering the initial sampling process, the
duration required to perform a complete CNN-based optimization and
a traditional model-based optimization are 24.2 and 22.5 h, respectively.
The specific curvilinear stiffener layouts and corresponding buckling
modes are presented in Figure 21, which perform admirably in structural
layout design with a variable number of stiffeners, and cannot be
addressed using traditional models, as shown. Although the accepted
principle in the field of aerospace dictates that a stiffened panel with
maximum structural efficiency is characterized by the simultaneous occur-
rence of global and local buckling in the first order buckling mode, the
optimal layout identified in this study only involved global buckling.
Moreover, the numerical examples used to evaluate this model are rela-
tively simple, and failure analysis, manufacturability, and the manufac-
turing costs of the structure have not been considered. Therefore, the
viability of this model merits further research.
Effusion cooling and transpiration cooling are efficient cooling tech-
nologies for hot section components, such as missiles, space vehicles,
rockets, and gas turbines (Song, Choi, & Scotti, 2006; Zhu, Jiang, Sun,
& Xiong, 2013). Porous media are used as the core structures in these
technologies, providing numerous micro avenues for the coolant to eject
and form a uniform coolant film on the external surface. In contrast,
traditional cooling structures are unable to adapt to nonuniform incoming
temperature loads due to model and design limitations. Yang, Dai, et al.
(2019) developed a conditional generative adversarial neural (cGAN)
 European Journal of Materials 155

Figure 21. Comparison between the optimal layouts and corresponding buckling
modes (Hao et al., 2021).

network that constructs a high-dimensional and nonlinear mapping rela-

tionship between the surface profile and temperature including a series
of effusively cooled plates. After training, a discriminator in this model
identifies the information of the image pairs in different levels, inducing
the magnitudes, gradient, and textures. The discriminator serves as a
strong loss function to evaluate the regression accuracy, which is much
more complicated than conventional manually designed loss functions,
such as the root-mean-square error. The trained cGAN model, which
converts over 100 surface profile images into temperature images in less
156 Y. WANG ET AL.

Figure 22. Computational fluid dynamics data of the external surface temperature
distribution of the baseline geometry and the optimized geometries obtained for
each thermal load (Yang, Dai, et al., 2019).

than a second, was one of the components of this optimization workflow.

The results, including geometry, local cooling effectiveness, and external
surface temperature, are displayed in Figure 22. In general, in all cases,
temperatures were well controlled within a range of 500–525 K for a
large proportion of the target surface areas. This resulted in a significant
reduction in the thermal stress of the cooled plates and demonstrated
the success of the presented optimization workflow, in which the cGAN
model is coupled to a genetic algorithm.
Optical materials with special optical properties are widely used in a
broad range of applications, from computer displays to solar energy
utilization, which has led to massive datasets being accumulated as a
result of years of extensive materials synthesis and optical characterization
being conducted. Compared to single materials, the optical properties of
composite metal oxides are gaining increasing attention in materials
research because these properties can be unique and suited to a specific
environment. First-principles calculations, such as density-functional the-
ory, have been widely used to study the optical properties of composite
 European Journal of Materials 157

materials (Khalid et al., 2019). Although first-principles calculations are

powerful, their associated calculation costs prohibitive and greatly restrict
the size of the materials design space and the number of materials. Over
the past few years, ML has succeeded in predicting new features (Ward
& Wolverton, 2017) that help to guide chemical synthesis and have led
to the discovery of compounds with desirable properties (Lu et al., 2018;
Popova, Isayev, & Tropsha, 2018). As materials that cannot easily be
found have yet to be discovered and the scope of experimental explora-
tion based on experience is narrow, new methods of materials discovery
are still required (Zunger, 2018), which boosts the development of
approaches toward inverse materials design (Sanchez-Lengeling & Aspuru-
Guzik, 2018). Inverse design was first employed in the field of alloy
design (Ikeda, 1997), with the use of genetic algorithms and molecular
dynamics simulations to optimize the composition of multicomponent
alloys. This method has since received widespread attention in a wide
range of fields, with it now being widely used in the design of nano-
photonics (Jiang & Fan, 2019; Liu, Tan, Khoram, & Yu, 2018; Peurifoy
et al., 2018), surfaces (Aharoni, Xia, Zhang, Kamien, & Yang, 2018; Liu,
Tan, et al., 2018), catalysts (Freeze, Kelly, & Batista, 2019), drugs, and
materials. In this way, Dong, Dan, Li, and Hu (2021) developed and
used a transfer learning-based inverse optical materials design algorithm
to suggest materials compositions that are active in a desired light absorp-
tion spectrum. The final results demonstrated the universality of the
model and proved the feasibility of using this inverse design method
with the selected datasets. This inverse design model has allowed research-
ers to discover new materials that have the desired optical properties by
exploring the hidden relationships between the compositions of the mate-
rials and their optical absorption properties.
Electromechanical coupling is a more complicated feature of materials
than mechanical properties, as it is caused by strains that occur when

Figure 23. Two materials phases model composed of flexoelectric (green block) and
elastic (blue block) constituents (Hamdia et al., 2019).
158 Y. WANG ET AL.

structures are subjected to mechanical stress and electric fields. The

flexoelectric electromechanical energy conversion mechanism has been
widely used to design energy harvesters that could replace traditional
batteries as an environmentally friendly alternative (Deng, Kammoun,
Erturk, & Sharma, 2014). Thoroughly understanding and evaluating the
flexoelectric effect is very beneficial for the design of materials toward
target applications. Among all the flexoelectric structures, flexo-nano-
structures are complex systems with high-dimensional issues that depend
on several uncertain random variables. Physical experiments are not only
expensive and consume tremendous time and resources, but are also
largely constrained by the experimental conditions and techniques. Hamdia
et al. (2019) employed neural networks for the computational design of
flexoelectric materials, with the aim of developing novel constitutive
models and finding optimal topology patterns. The arbitrary geometry
distribution for the flexoelectric and elastic blocks in this system is
depicted in Figure 23. Materials properties and electromechanical coupling
effects can be determined by arranging flexoelectric and elastic phases
in nonuniform strain distributions. The final predictions based on these
DNNs reveal high accuracy and performance, which means that errors
can be measured at very little time. To solve a problem using a DNN,
the required time is at least a factor of 255–300 times less than for the
corresponding original based isogeometric analysis model. Furthermore,
the method exhibits strong ability to find high-efficiency and optimal
design patterns, corresponding to an energy conversion factor, even for
nontrained composite proportions, thus demonstrating the high compat-
ibility of the developed model. The mean absolute percentage errors for
both the training and testing sets are 5.1% and 5.6%, respectively.
Several deep-learning models were discussed in this article, as well as
their main features and applications. These models can be used in a
variety of scenarios because their neural networks have a variety of
structures and their neurons have a range of activation functions.
Relatively, they all have inherent limitations in terms of the mechanism
used to process information. New models are currently being developed,
and improved versions will be released in the future to address more
complex issues. However, it is difficult for a non-computer expert to do
so and to comprehend all of the principles of deep-learning models. It
turns out that different models can take advantage of their respective
merits, according to this research on composite materials science. If the
whole workflow of a task can be reasonably divided into several modules
and the right model or algorithm can be developed, it can exploit the
potential of each model to a great extent and avoid their intrinsic lim-
itations. Therefore, the pros and cons of each model can be summarized,
as shown in Table 1.
 European Journal of Materials 159

Table 1. Summary of commonly used deep-learning models.

Approach structure Advantages Disadvantages Applications
Fully High accuracy High demand for Image
connected and flexible training data classification
CNN

RNN Capable of Issues with Speech

recalling the gradient recognition
past explosion and machine
translation

LSTM Capable of Memory Time-series

learning consuming forecast and
lengthy-time and easy to text
dependencies overfit generation

GAN Capable of Hard to train Image

supplementing generation
training data

AE Dimensionality Loss of Feature

reduction interpretability extraction

4. Concluding remarks and future directions

This review article highlights that deep learning has been used in studies
to predict the properties of polymer materials, develop new systems for
data processing, and optimize performance of structural geometry, ben-
efiting from its powerful capability of feature extraction and reduced
computational costs. However, the application of deep learning in het-
erogeneous composite materials science is still a work in progress. High-
quality data are still in short supply, resulting in low calculation accuracy,
therefore meaning that more research is needed to improve the application
of deep learning in composite materials systems.
The construction of standard materials databases is extremely import-
ant for the future development of deep learning. As a data-driven method,
the quantity and quality of data primarily affect the accuracy of ML.
The scientific literature and technical records contain a wealth of
160 Y. WANG ET AL.

materials data that can be used to train deep-learning models, however,

these need to be organized and classified. A text mining technique could
be used to quickly collect data scattered across conference proceedings,
journal articles, and scientific magazines, greatly enriching the existing
databases and improving the accuracy of calculations.
Interpretability is still a problem that needs to be solved, where algo-
rithms of deep learning are used as a black box and are outside of basic
understanding. Models based on unknown physical principles may fail in
unexpected ways, even if they produce acceptable results in the majority
of cases. As a result, the widespread adoption of black-box deep-learning
models is hampered by the current lack of trust in them. Understanding
the principles and assumptions that underpin the models not only improves
their abilities but also allows further development. Using virtual reality
models in materials design to identify potential problems prior to the
manufacture of the materials will make Industry 4.0 and the smart factory
for composites a reality. Industry 4.0 is focused on data-driven manufac-
turing, where in the future billions of machines, systems, and sensors will
communicate with each other and share information, with physical systems
connected to digital twins, and the industrial internet of things. This will
not only enable companies to design and produce products with signifi-
cantly more efficiency, but it will also give them greater flexibility when
it comes to tailoring production to meet market requirements (Soutis, 2020).
In conclusion, although deep learning has the potential to be used in
the design and evaluation of composites, due to a lack of materials data
and difficult-to-follow processing principles the desired accuracy cannot
be achieved. Although deep learning is currently in the process of changing
and improving, with more reliable algorithms and materials models being
introduced to account for fabrication induced defects and the evolution
of damage in materials under different loading conditions, more work is
needed to improve the accuracy and efficiency of these processes. Overall,
it is certain that deep learning will reduce effort and costs in developing
materials, reshaping many industries in a variety of ways in the years ahead.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributor
Y. Wang is a PhD student at the graduate school of Tohoku University, studying
materials science. Currently, she is conducting research on piezoelectric materi-
als. As she has knowledge on both computers and materials science, she is
particularly interested in interdisciplinary research.
 European Journal of Materials 161

Professor C Soutis PhD (Cantab) holds an Emeritus Chair in Aerospace

Engineering at the University of Manchester (UK). He is a Fellow of the Royal
Academy of Engineering, distinguished for his major contributions to the science
and technology of fibre composite materials based upon polymeric matrices.
Professor Soutis has authored or co-authored more than 400 ISI listed papers
and successfully supervised over 40 PhD students.

D. Ando studied materials science at Tohoku University in Japan and received

his PhD at the same University in 2011. His present main research topic is
structural light metal with functionality, such as Magnesium alloys with shape
memory effect and high strength Aluminum alloys at high temperature.

Y. Sutou studied materials science at Tohoku University in Japan and received

his PhD at the same University in 2001. His present main research topic is
functional materials, such as shape memory alloys and phase-change non-vola-
tile memory materials.

F. Narita received his PhD degree from Tohoku University, Japan, in 1998. He
is currently a Professor at Tohoku University. He is engaged in research to
design and develop piezoelectric and magnetostrictive composite materials in
energy harvesting and self-powered environmental monitoring.

ORCID
Yinli Wang http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2129-1225
Constantinos Soutis http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1402-9838
Daisuke Ando http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7112-894X
Yuji Sutou http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3067-2727
Fumio Narita http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0957-1948

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