A probabilistic framework for source localization in anisotropic composite using transfer learning based multi-fidelity physics informed neural network (mfPINN)

The practical application of data-driven frameworks like deep neural network in acoustic emission (AE) source localization is impeded due to the collection of significant clean data from the field. The utility of the such framework is governed by data collected from the site and/or laboratory experiment. The noise, experimental cost and time consuming in the collection of data further worsen the scenario. To address the issue, this work proposes to use a novel multi-fidelity physics-informed neural network (mfPINN). The proposed framework is best suited for the problems like AE source detection, where the governing physics is known in an approximate sense (low-fidelity model), and one has access to only sparse data measured from the experiment (high-fidelity data). This work further extends the governing equation of AE source detection to the probabilistic framework to account for the uncertainty that lies in the sensor measurement. The mfPINN fuses the data-driven and physics-informed deep learning architectures using transfer learning. The results obtained from the data-driven artificial neural network (ANN) and physics-informed neural network (PINN) are also presented to illustrate the requirement of a multi-fidelity framework using transfer learning. In the presence of measurement uncertainties, the proposed method is verified with an experimental procedure that contains the carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite panel instrumented with a sparse array of piezoelectric transducers. The results conclude that the proposed technique based on a probabilistic framework can provide a reliable estimation of AE source location with confidence intervals by taking measurement uncertainties into account.