Abstract

The objective of this paper was to predict the failure load in single lap adhesive joints subjected to tensile loading by using artificial neural networks. Experimental data obtained from the literature cover the single lap adhesive joints with various geometric models under the tensile loading. The data are arranged in a format such that two input parameters cover the length and width of bond area in single lap adhesive joints and the corresponding output is the ultimate failure load. An artificial neural network model was developed to estimate relationship between failure loads by using geometric dimensions of bond area as input data. A three-layer feedforward artificial neural network that utilized Levenberg–Marquardt learning algorithm model was used in order to train network. It was observed that artificial neural network model can estimate failure load of single lap adhesive joints with acceptable error. Mean absolute percentage error and Nash–Sutcliffe coefficient of efficiency values of both training and testing data were 3.523 and 3.524 and 0.997 and 0.992, respectively. The results showed that the artificial neural network is an efficient alternative method to predict the failure load of single lap adhesive joints. Also estimated results are in very good agreement with the experimental data.