Engineering data are often highly nonlinear and contain high-frequency noise, so the Levenberg–Marquardt (LM) algorithm may not converge when a neural network optimized by the algorithm is trained with engineering data. In this work, we analyzed the reasons for the LM neural network’s poor convergence commonly associated with the LM algorithm. Specifically, the effects of different activation functions such as Sigmoid, Tanh, Rectified Linear Unit (RELU) and Parametric Rectified Linear Unit (PRLU) were evaluated on the general performance of LM neural networks, and special values of LM neural network parameters were found that could make the LM algorithm converge poorly. We proposed an adaptive LM (AdaLM) algorithm to solve the problem of the LM algorithm. The algorithm coordinates the descent direction and the descent step by the iteration number, which can prevent falling into the local minimum value and avoid the influence of the parameter state of LM neural networks. We compared the AdaLM algorithm with the traditional LM algorithm and its variants in terms of accuracy and speed in the context of testing common datasets and aero-engine data, and the results verified the effectiveness of the AdaLM algorithm.

Modern production management patterns, in which multi-unit (e.g. an aircraft fleet) are managed in a holistic manner, have brought new challenges for multi-unit maintenance decision-making. To schedule a good maintenance plan, not only does the individual aircraft maintenance have to be considered, but also the maintenance of the other aircraft in fleet have to be taken into account. Condition-based maintenance (CBM) is a maintenance scheme which recommends maintenance decisions according to equipment status collected by condition monitor over a period of time. Evaluating risk is necessary for scheduling appropriate maintenance, avoiding aircraft losses and maintaining the repairable components at a high-reliable state. In this paper, a novel two-models-fusion framework is proposed to predict the reliability of aircraft structures subjected to fatigue loads. Furthermore, we established a fleet maintenance decision-making model based on CBM for the maintenance of fatigue structures. The model concentrates on both minimising fleet maintenance cost and maximising fleet availability, overcoming the shortcomings of traditional fleet CBM research, which has simply focused on one or the other of these parameters. Finally, a case study regarding a fleet of 10 aircraft is conducted, and the results indicated that the proposed model efficiently generates outcomes that meet the schedule requirements.

To achieve intelligent manufacturing and improve the machining quality of machine tools, this paper proposes an interpretable machining size prediction model combining eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), autoencoder (AE), and Shapley additive explanation (SHAP) analysis. In this study, XGBoost was used to establish an evaluation system for the actual machining size of computer numerical control (CNC) machine tools. The XGBoost model was combined with SHAP approximation to effectively capture local and global features in the data using autoencoders and transform the preprocessed data into more representative feature vectors. Grey correlation analysis (GRA) and principal component analysis (PCA) were used to reduce the dimensions of the original data features, and the synthetic minority overstimulation technique of the Gaussian noise regression (SMOGN) method was used to deal with the problem of data imbalance. Taking the actual size of the machine tool as the response parameter, based on the size parameters in the milling process of the CNC machine tool, the effectiveness of the model is verified. The experimental results show that the proposed AE-XGBoost model is superior to the traditional XGBoost method, and the prediction accuracy of the model is 7.11% higher than that of the traditional method. The subsequent SHAP analysis reveals the importance and interrelationship of features and provides a reliable decision support system for machine tool processing personnel, helping to improve processing quality and achieve intelligent manufacturing.