DEVELOPING A FUNCTIONAL MODEL EXTRACTED

FROM AN ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORK FOR THE

PREDICTION OF FRICTION FACTOR IN THE
TURBULENT FLOW REGIME
 Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is an
intelligent data-driven modeling tool that
can capture and represent complex and non-
linear input/output relationships. They can
continuously improve their performance
through dynamic learning o training. ANN
can be employed as a function of
approximation, pattern recognition and
classification, prediction, memory recall,
optimization, and noise filtering
 The artificial neural network (ANN)
provides a viable solution to the problem
of predicting the friction factor in pipe
flow at very high speed because it is based
on training not on the analytical and
statistical assumptions.
 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Most previous works did not provide any

applicable equation or function that can be
applied in the prediction of the friction factor
even without access to Artificial Neural
Network software. Therefore the need to
investigate the inner workings of the ANN and
also not only predicting the friction factor of the
turbulent flow regime but also extract a
functional model from the network which will
be carried out in this project
 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

The objective of the work to be carried

out in this project is to develop a
functional model which will be
extracted from the Artificial Neural
Network for the prediction of friction
factor in the turbulent flow regime.
 SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS
STUDY
It is difficult to determine a good network
topology only from several inputs and
outputs. The fact is that a suitable number
of hidden layers can reduce training time
with very high accuracy. This project will
draw attention to a simple ANN-based
functional model which can be used for the
prediction of the friction factor in the
turbulent flow regime.
 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The scope of this project will be

a simulation-scale study using
MATLAB as the ANN toolbox.
 LITERATURE REVIEW
Over the years, several configurations of
ANN have been developed and tested to
determine the most suitable network to be
used in predicting friction factor. The
tested ANN formats included single and
double hidden layers. Program file with
code written and implemented in
MATLAB to create, train, validate and test
the networks.
 Most of the previous works simply
demonstrated the ability of ANN to match
experimental output data and did not provide
any applicable model or function that can be
applied by interested researchers for friction
factor prediction.
This project is unique by not only predicting
the experimental output data, but will also
provide detailed stepwise procedure for
developing a functional model for friction
factor prediction in the turbulent flow regime
 MATERIALS AND METHODS
SOURCE OF DATA

The data to be used for this project will be

generated using MATLAB by using random
datasets.
The data will be collected from previous indexes
and will be normalized and divided into two
groups, where one will be used for training and
the other for testing and validating the model
independently.
 PROCESSING OF DATA

The inputs of the neural network are

the data that will be adjusted to be
able to correctly predict the friction
factor of the turbulent flow regime.
MATLAB will be used to create, train,
validate and test the networks as well
as to generate extract a functional
model for the network.
 TRAINING THE NETWORK
The Artificial Neural network will be
trained by feeding in training dataset and
letting it change its weights according to
the learning rule such as using back-
propagation training algorithms which
will help to determine the structure of the
model to be extracted
 TESTING OF THE FUNCTIONAL
MODEL

The test data will be provided to the

trained network to obtain the model
to be used for prediction The results
will be compared with the desired
output to get the test accuracy of the
previous network prediction.