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Liquid Flow Front Estimation From Ultrasonic Guided Wave Signals Using Machine Learning
* 1 , 1 , 1 , 1 , 1 , 1 , 2 , 3 , 4
1  Sensor Enabled Automation, Robotics, and Control Hub (SEARCH), Centre for Ultrasonic Engineering (CUE), Electronic and Electrical Engineering Department, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, G1 1XW, UK
2  National Manufacturing Institute Scotland, Lightweight Manufacturing Centre, Paisley, Renfrew PA3 2EF, UK
3  Boeing Aerospace Innovation Centre, Glasgow Prestwick Airport, Prestwick, KA9 2RW, UK
4  Short Brothers, a Boeing Company, Belfast, BT3 9EE, UK
Academic Editor: Fabio Tosti

Abstract:

The reliable monitoring of liquid front progression during infusion processes remains a key challenge for the industrial deployment of out-of-autoclave lightweight composite manufacturing. This study investigates the use of ultrasonic guided waves for fluid front localisation in a bespoke liquid-only experimental setup, evaluating data-driven waveform modelling approaches and strategies for bridging the gap between simulated and experimental signals. A refined finite element simulation workflow is developed to reproduce the fundamental modal behaviour of experimental waveforms at substantially reduced computational cost when compared to other previously implemented models. A one-dimensional convolutional neural network trained directly on time-domain signals achieves a mean absolute error of 7.71 ± 2.11 mm across five independent infusion runs, outperforming the baseline energy-based functional approximation. To address the limited availability of experimental data, a conditional Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) is developed to bridge the gap between the simulated and experimental domains. When GAN-adapted synthetic data is combined with a single experimental dataset for training, the prediction error is reduced by 46% compared to training on experimental data alone, from 16.69 ± 0.86 mm to 9.07 ± 1.11 mm. These results demonstrate that waveform-based deep learning models, supported by GAN-adapted synthetic data, offer a promising and data-efficient route for accurate monitoring of resin flow in liquid composite moulding processes.

Keywords: Resin Infusion Process Monitoring; Ultrasonic Leaky Lamb Waves; Machine Learning; Synthetic Data Augmentation; Finite Element Analysis Modelling; Generative Adversarial Learning.

 
 
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