Prediction of the Hot Compressive Deformation Behavior for Superalloy Nimonic 80A by BP-ANN Model

In order to predict hot deformation behavior of superalloy nimonic 80A, a back-propagational artificial neural network (BP-ANN) and strain-dependent Arrhenius-type model were established based on the experimental data from isothermal compression tests on a Gleeble-3500 thermo-mechanical simulator at temperatures ranging of 1050–1250 °C, strain rates ranging of 0.01–10.0 s−1. A comparison on a BP-ANN model and modified Arrhenius-type constitutive equation has been implemented in terms of statistical parameters, involving mean value of relative (μ), standard deviation (w), correlation coefficient (R) and average absolute relative error (AARE). The μ -value and w -value of the improved Arrhenius-type model are 3.0012% and 2.0533%, respectively, while their values of the BP-ANN model are 0.0714% and 0.2564%, respectively. Meanwhile, the R-value and ARRE-value for the improved Arrhenius-type model are 0.9899 and 3.06%, while their values for the BP-ANN model are 0.9998 and 1.20%. The results indicate that the BP-ANN model can accurately track the experimental data and show a good generalization capability to predict complex flow behavior. Then, a 3D continuous interaction space for temperature, strain rate, strain and stress was constructed based on the expanded data predicted by a well-trained BP-ANN model. The developed 3D continuous space for hot working parameters articulates the intrinsic relationships of superalloy nimonic 80A.