Prediction of Tribological Properties of UHMWPE/SiC Polymer Composites Using Machine Learning Techniques

Polymer composites are a class of material that are gaining a lot of attention in demanding tribological applications due to the ability of manipulating their performance by changing various factors, such as processing parameters, types of fillers, and operational parameters. Hence, a number of samples under different conditions need to be repeatedly produced and tested in order to satisfy the requirements of an application. However, with the advent of a new field of triboinformatics, which is a scientific discipline involving computer technology to collect, store, analyze, and evaluate tribological properties, we presently have access to a variety of high-end tools, such as various machine learning (ML) techniques, which can significantly aid in efficiently gauging the polymer’s characteristics without the need to invest time and money in a physical experimentation. The development of an accurate model specifically for predicting the properties of the composite would not only cheapen the process of product testing, but also bolster the production rates of a very strong polymer combination. Hence, in the current study, the performance of five different machine learning (ML) techniques is evaluated for accurately predicting the tribological properties of ultrahigh molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) polymer composites reinforced with silicon carbide (SiC) nanoparticles. Three input parameters, namely, the applied pressure, holding time, and the concentration of SiCs, are considered with the specific wear rate (SWR) and coefficient of friction (COF) as the two output parameters. The five techniques used are support vector machines (SVMs), decision trees (DTs), random forests (RFs), k-nearest neighbors (KNNs), and artificial neural networks (ANNs). Three evaluation statistical metrics, namely, the coefficient of determination (R(2)-value), mean absolute error (MAE), and root mean square error (RMSE), are used to evaluate and compare the performances of the different ML techniques. Based upon the experimental dataset, the SVM technique was observed to yield the lowest error rates—with the RMSE being 2.09 × 10(−4) and MAE being 2 × 10(−4) for COF and for SWR, an RMSE of 2 × 10(−4) and MAE of 1.6 × 10(−4) were obtained—and highest R(2)-values of 0.9999 for COF and 0.9998 for SWR. The observed performance metrics shows the SVM as the most reliable technique in predicting the tribological properties—with an accuracy of 99.99% for COF and 99.98% for SWR—of the polymer composites.