Textile Research Journal

http://trj.sagepub.com Predicting the Seam Strength of Notched Webbings for Parachute Assemblies Using the Taguchi's Design of Experiment and Artificial Neural Networks
Levent Onal, Mithat Zeydan, Mahmut Korkmaz and Sheik Meeran Textile Research Journal 2009; 79; 468 DOI: 10.1177/0040517508099921 The online version of this article can be found at: http://trj.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/79/5/468

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Textile Research Journal

Article

Predicting the Seam Strength of Notched Webbings for Parachute Assemblies Using the Taguchi's Design of Experiment and Artificial Neural Networks
Abstract

Levent Onal1
Erciyes University, Department of Textile Engineering, 38039 Kayseri, Turkey

Webbings are used in parachute assemblies as reinforcing units for the strength they provide. The strength of these seams is an important characteristic which has a substantial influence on the mechanical property of the parachute assemblies. It is well established that factors such as fabric width, folding length of joint, seam design and seam type will all have an impact on seam strength. In this work, the effect of these factors on seam strength was studied using both Taguchis design of experiment (TDOE) as well as an artificial neural network (ANN). In TDOE, two levels were chosen for the factors mentioned above. An L8 design was adopted and an orthogonal array was generated. The contribution of each factor to seam strength was analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and signal to noise ratio methods. From the analysis it was found that the fabric width, folding length of joint and interaction between the folding length of joint and the seam design affected seam strength significantly. Further, using TDOE, an optimal configuration of levels of factors was found. In order to contrast and compare the results from TDOE, an ANN was also used to predict seam strength using the above mentioned factors as inputs. The prediction from TDOE and ANN methodologies were compared with physical seam strength. It was established from these comparisons, in which the root mean square error was used as an accuracy measure, that the predictions by ANN were better in accuracy than those predicted by TDOE.

Mithat Zeydan
Erciyes University, Department of Industrial Engineering, 38039, Kayseri, Turkey

Mahmut Korkmaz
Erciyes University, Mustafa Cikrikcioglu Vocational School, 38039 Kayseri, Turkey

Sheik Meeran
School of Management, The University of Bath, Bath, U.K.

Key words webbing, parachute, seam strength, artificial neural network, Taguchis design of experiment

Corresponding author: tel: +90 (352) 4374901 ext.32877; fax: +90 (352) 4375784; e-mail: lonal@erciyes.edu.tr

Textile Research Journal Vol 79(5): 468478 DOI: 10.1177/0040517508099921 Figures 68 appear in color online: http://trj.sagepub.com

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Predicting the Seam Strength of Notched Webbings for Parachute Assemblies Using L. Onal et al. Webbings have been used in different forms as reinforcement in different types of parachute assemblies, such as paratrooper parachute, plane decelerating parachute, cargo decelerating parachute and decelerating parachute for cluster bombs. Webbings support the canopy fabric of parachutes. Depending on the type and end use of parachutes, the number and location of the webbings on the canopy of the parachutes vary. To our knowledge and understanding, there are no publications which use both Taguchis design of experiment (TDOE) and artificial neural network (ANN) to predict the strength of webbings and then compare them with the strength physically obtained from mechanical tests on notched webbing specimens. In any case, there are only a handful of studies that attempt to predict webbing strength irrespective of the method employed. However, there have been various studies looking at different aspects which either relate to or lead to predicting webbing strength. Many studies can be found on predicting fabric strength. These studies in general have concentrated on matters relating to the canopy of parachutes [19]. Edberg [1] studied the stress-strain curves of ultraviolet-aged nylon parachute fabrics where as Ericksen [4] studied the effects of folding on the strength of parachute materials. Li et al. [8] and Lee and Li [9] made a three-dimensional analysis of various parachutes, which included study of parachute fabrics. Of the very few studies on webbings in parachute assemblies [10, 11], Ericksen et al. [10] evaluated the effect of warp and weft variables on the strength of joints in Kevlar webbings. Onal [11] studied the mechanical properties of notched webbings in cluster sub-munition parachutes. He also studied the effect of warp density and fiber type on the load extension property of notched webbings. On the wider aspect of using TDOE, there have been only a few publications on the application of TDOE in textile technology. Park and Ha [12] applied TDOE for optimizing sewing conditions in woven garments. Liasi et al. [13] used the TDOE method for finding the optimum needle temperature in sewing. On the other hand, ANN has been used in various areas of textile technology for nearly 10 years. Park et al. [14] applied fuzzy logic and ANNs for the evaluation of knitted fabrics. Chen et al. [15] focused on predicting the fiber diameter of melt-blown non-wovens by supplying processing parameters as input variables to their ANN models. An ANN was also used by Majumdar et al. [16] for predicting spinning quality index and fiber micronaire from the given fiber properties. Majumdar and Majumdar [17] employed an ANN model for predicting the breaking elongation of ring spun cotton yarns. They used yarn counts and cotton fiber properties as inputs to their models. Yao et al. [18] investigated the predictability of warp breakage rate from a sizing yarn quality index using a feed-forward back-propagation ANN. Tilocca et al. [19] presented a new approach to automatic fabric inspection based on an optical acquisi-

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tion system and an ANN to analyze the acquired data. ANN methodology has been also successfully used for predicting the strength of fabrics. Ertugrul and Ucar [20] used an ANN to predict bursting strength of cotton plain-knitted fabrics. Ogulata et al. [21] predicted elongation and recovery test results of woven stretch fabric for warp and weft direction using different test points with regression and ANN models. Chattopadhyay and Guha [22] reviewed extensively the application of ANN to various research areas of textile science. Zeydan [23] compared consistency and efficiency of both ANN and TDOE methodologies to predict woven fabric strength. Although webbings have been extensively used in parachute assemblies, no specific study has been reported on the seam strength of notched webbing. Hence in this work, the seam strength of notched webbings for the parachute assemblies is addressed. The effect of factors such as fabric width, folding length of joint, seam design and seam type on seam strength was studied using both TDOE as well as an ANN. In TDOE, two levels were chosen for the factors mentioned above: an L8 design was adopted and an orthogonal array was generated using MINITAB (Minitab Inc. (2003) statistical software, Release 14 for Windows, State College, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.). The contribution of each factor to seam strength was analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and signal to noise ratio (S/N) methods. Further, an optimal configuration of levels of factors was found using TDOE as well as an ANN using the above mentioned factors as inputs. The prediction from TDOE and ANN methodologies were compared using root mean square error (RMSE) as an accuracy measure against the physical seam strength, which was found through conducting mechanical tests on specimens.

Materials and Method

Webbings, which are used in parachute assemblies, are made from polyamide 6.6. As mentioned earlier, fabric width, folding length of joint, seam design and seam type are the factors considered to have an impact on seam strength. Detailed drawings of two types of seams used in this work can be seen in the standard FED STD no 751a. However, Figure 1 shows a schematic of these types of seams as well as the two seam designs used. It can be seen from these schematics that one of these seams, LSb, is formed by folding under the edge of one ply of the material overlapping it at the edge of another ply and sewing with two rows of stitches close to the edges, while the other seam, LSc, is formed by folding in and overlapping the edges of two plies of material so that the edges are concealed and sewn with two rows of stitches close to the edges. The sewing is done with Type-301 stitches with a stitch density of 5 stitch/cm using Type-1 nylon yarn and nylon binding thread, the specifications of which are given

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Figure 1 Schematic view of sample, where the hole is at the centre of a folded section of combined narrow fabric.

Table 1 Properties of webbings.

Fabric width (mm) Thickness (mm) Weight (g/m) Breaking strength (N) Elongation (%) Warp/cm Weft/cm Yarn counts (denier) Warp 10 13 0.380.64 0.380.64 3.72 4.65 1108 1490.3 22.8 22.1 29 39.4 13 13 210 210 Weft 420 420

in the Federal Specification V-T-295D. The summary of which is, sewing nylon yarn, Type-1 Size-3, is a three-plied yarn having 2 twist/cm, a breaking force of 120 N and a yarn count of 205 Tex. Binding thread is Type-1 Size-E yarn, which is a three-plied stitch yarn having 2.4 twist/cm, a breaking force of 40 N and a yarn count of 68 Tex. Properties of webbings are given in Table 1. As mentioned earlier, this work is about predicting seam strength using TDOE and ANN methodologies and verifying and comparing the results obtained by these methodologies against the physical strength, which is obtained by experimental measuring. The experimental measuring of seam strength is carried out as follows. Samples were notched with 4.5 mm holes at the center of the seam zone (as shown in Figure 1) by a sharp pin acting swiftly in order not to cause any deformation of the fabric. Seam strength of the samples were tested with Zwick Universal tester, which used a loading rate of 305 mm/minute. Breaking force (FT) and elongation were recorded for further analysis. Sewn seam strength was calculated using equation 1 given below. Whenever there was a slippage of fabric from the tester jaws that was also recorded. All tests were performed under standard atmospheric conditions (65+/2% relative humidity and 202oC temperature) and samples were conditioned for 24 hours before testing. Five samples were tested in each group and the average was recorded; the group being the one identified by the L8

experiment. None of the samples failed at or close to the grip region. FT F S = 1000 ----w

(1)

where FS is sewn seam strength, FT is the seam breaking force of each sample, and w is specimen width.

The Taguchi Philosophy on Experimental Design

The main purpose of this method, which is one of the many experimental design methods, is to find a best product/ process design. The TDOE method aims to be a variance reduction technique. Although some criticisms have been leveled against this method regarding its inadequacy in capturing interactions, it is argued that it is possible to eliminate the interactions in one of the following ways: (a) correctly specifying the response variable (that is, quality characteristics of interest) and design factors (b) using a sliding setting approach to choose factor levels [24]. The evolution of TDOE consists of three stages in the development of product/process as shown in Figure 2. Figure 3 shows the Ishikawa cause-effect diagram for factors affecting seam strength of notched webbing. It can

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Figure 2 Design of experiment cycle in the Taguchi philosophy.

be seen that there are four major categories that influence the seam strength. Performing a TDOE on all of the parameters given in Figure 3 will be unwieldy. Hence, all individual parameters within these categories are kept constant apart from the sewing parameters. This led to selection of the key factors and levels of the sewing parameters used in setting TDOE in this work. Further steps after choosing the key factors and levels in establishing TDOE are: selecting an appropriate orthogonal array, collecting the data related to the groupings according to the scheme

of orthogonal array, performing ANOVA for identifying significant key factors, finding the optimal combination of factor levels to maximize (optimize) the objective metric, in this case, seam strength of notched webbings. Key factors (sometimes called control factors) are the factors which have an influence on the outcome/design parameter/product/process. The factors chosen here are fabric width, fabric length of joint, seam design and seam type, as they have an impact on seam strength, the design parameter of interest and are specified in Table 2. In the

Figure 3 Fishbone (Ishikawa cause-effect) diagram for factors affecting seam strength of webbing.

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Textile Research Journal 79(5) putation, is a mathematical/computational model based on biological neural network. Most widely used ANN algorithm is feed forward back-propagation algorithm proposed by Rumelhart and McClelland [25], while the most popular architecture of the ANN is a multilayer network consisting of input, hidden and output layers. The capability to learn from examples and the ability to generalize are the most important features of back-propagation ANN (BP ANN), which are achieved by the learnt information stored as weights across the network. BP ANN has a great potential in many industrial and scientific areas where prediction has to be made based on existing patterns and hence used in this work as one of the methods to predict seam strength. A three-layer, feed-forward BP ANN model having four input neurons and five hidden neurons was used in this study. During training, the output is compared with an expected value and the mean square error is calculated. If the mean square error is more than a prescribed limiting value, it is used as a trigger to back-propagate a correction of weights from output to input. The weights are further modified until the error or number of iterations is within a prescribed limit. Mean square error, EP, for pattern p is defined as
n

Table 2 Control factors for experimental design.

Factors A: Fabric width (mm) B: Folding length of joint (mm) C: Seam design D: Seam type Levels 1 10 15 X LSb 2 13 20 II LSc

Taguchis design of experiment, two levels, namely level 1 (minimum value) and level 2 (maximum value) are considered for each of the above factors. An L8 experiment with two levels for each factor and seven degrees of freedom was found be appropriate. Every experiment (corresponding to a row in the orthogonal array) was repeated five times and performance variance is captured in terms of S/N ratio. In general, S/N ratio is used as a measure of performance variability of products/processes (that is, robustness in the presence of noise factors). In statistical term S stands for mean and is called signal and N stands for standard deviation and is called noise. Mathematically, the S/N ratio is derived from quadratic loss function. The S/N data for all the experiments given by orthogonal array was analyzed using mains effect diagram and ANOVA to identify the significant key factors which have maximum impact on the variance of the characteristic of interest, that is, seam strength. The overall aim of any TDOE is to find factor levels that maximize S/N ratio, which suggests a lower variability. This leads to the premise: the better the S/N ratio, the better the quality and hence the effort to increase the S/N ratio in any design. In general, the S/N ratio could be formulated on three modes: smaller is better, nominal is better, larger is better. As suggested above, the larger is better mode is found to be appropriate in this design of experiment. On this basis the following formula is used to calculate S/N ratio:
n 1- --2 y i=1 i S N = 10 log ------------ n

Ep =

i=1

-(D -2

pi

O pi )

(3)

where Dpi is the target value, and Opi is the computed output for the ith pattern. Also we have Ep ( t ) - + W ( t 1 ) W ( t ) = --------------W

(4)

(2)

where n is the number of repetitions for an experimental combination, i is a numerator, and yi is a performance value of the ith experiment. S/N ratio is abbreviated as SNR.

where is the learning rate, which is in the interval of 0 < < 1; is the momentum coefficient, which is in the interval of 0 < < 1; EP(t) is the error that varies with time t; and W is the weight of the connections between neurons in different layers. The nature of the training depends partially on the choice of activation function. In order to generate the optimum activation function for the study, tanh, linear, Gaussian, and sigmoid functions were experimented in the QwickNet v2.23 software. Sigmoid activation function used in hidden and output layers resulted in faster training. The sigmoid activation function is given in equation 5. Figure 4 was drawn varying constant, c. 1 . y = ------------------- ( cx ) 1+e (5)

Artificial Neural Network

ANN, which is made up of interconnected neurons and processes information using a transition approach to com-

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Figure 4 Logistic activation function.

Results and Discussion

As mentioned earlier in this paper, an L8 design was adopted for the design of experiment in this work. The seam strength data were gathered on the samples prepared according to the specifications dictated by the orthogonal arrays in terms of levels of factors. These data were input

into the TDOE module of MINITAB to start the process of experiment. The physical manifestation of the orthogonal arrays can be seen in the columns headed A, B, C, D in Table 3. The data collection was replicated for five cycles and results are given in Table 3. S/N, mean, standard deviation (given in parentheses in Table 3) were calculated for these data using MINITAB. It can be also seen from Table 3 by varying factors A, B, C, and D, the variance of the process (which is given in terms of S/N) could be controlled and in turn could be reduced. From further TDOE analysis using the same software, it was found that factor A (fabric width) and factor B (folding length of joint) were significant based on ANOVA and SNR calculations with their P values less than 0.05 as shown in Table 4. However, factor C (seam design) and factor D (seam type) were found to be not significant even at 90%, 95% and 99% significance level as F values for factors C and D are less than critical value for F as given in the F-table (F0.1,1,3 =5.54). This is confirmed by the main effect plots for SNR (with larger is better mode) shown in Figure 5, derived from Table 5, in which the effect of each factor for seam strength at levels 1 and 2 as well as the corresponding delta values are given. The delta value is the difference between level 1 effect (response) and level 2 effect, which in turn represents the net effect. A higher delta value

Table 3 Experimental results for five cycles including SNR and mean value.
Trial 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 A 10 10 10 10 13 13 13 13 B 15 15 20 20 15 15 20 20 C X X II II II II X X D Lsb Lsc Lsb Lsc Lsb Lsc Lsb Lsc 1. Cycle 39799.2 59801.8 71897.5 80540.1 62670.8 73160.0 75303.1 84034.0 2. Cycle 35353.7 50649.8 61606.8 70684.8 60889.9 62708.5 77159.4 90402.9 3. Cycle 35587.7 52309.9 58452.5 57803.5 63508.4 74231.5 75559.6 71092.3 4. Cycle 32848.4 48408.6 62255.8 64708.3 61463.4 75687.9 77732.9 76563.3 5. Cycle 30561.9 51087.5 54528.5 65742.1 60497.5 63666.9 75008.8 87007.2 Mean 34830 (3453) 52451.5 (4344) 61748.2 (6447) 67895.8 (8431) 61806 (1256) 69891(6834) 76152.8 (1348) 81819.9 (7877) SNR 90.73 94.33 95.70 96.48 95.81 96.80 97.63 98.15

Table 4 ANOVA table for SNR.

Source A B C D Residual error Total DF 1 1 1 1 3 7 Seq SS 15.538 13.229 1.953 4.323 3.055 38.098 Adj SS 15.538 13.229 1.953 4.323 3.055 Adj MS 15.538 13.229 1.953 4.323 1.018 F 15.26 12.99 1.92 4.24 Pure sum of squares 14.519 12.211 0.933 3.304 Percentage contribution 38.108 32.051 2.451 8.673 18.717 100 P (probability) 0.030 0.037 0.260 0.131

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Figure 5 Main effects plot for SNR of seam strength.

Table 5 Response values for SNR (larger is better).

Level 1 2 Delta Rank A 94.31 97.10 2.79 1 B 94.42 96.99 2.57 2 C 95.21 96.20 0.99 4 D 94.97 96.44 1.47 3

means that the difference at the selected level for a given factor is highly pronounced and in turn, the level change of this factor has an impact on seam strength. As can be seen, the delta values for factors A and B (occupying ranks 1 and 2) are higher than the values for factors C and D. The TDOE analysis further suggested that the optimum combination of factors (which will give optimum seam strength) is A2B2C2D2, which translates into fabric width of 13 mm, folding length of joint of 20 mm, seam design of II, and seam type of LSc.

In order to predict the usefulness of the TDOE model, which has just been established, additional trials with different combinations of levels of factors were carried out on additional samples as shown in Table 6. Within this set of additional tests, the optimal configuration given by TDOE, namely A2B2C2D2, is also given. In Table 6, the mean value for each of the trials is given along with standard deviation for each configuration. These values are compared against the values predicted by MINITAB for these configurations to validate the predictions by the TDOE. As the optimum configuration is A2B2C2D2, it may inadvertently imply that each factor at level 2 will have a better impact on seam strength. From inspection of Tables 3 and 6, it can be seen that this is not the case, that is, level 2 of each factor does not always give the higher performance (seam strength). This indicates that it is important to look at the interaction between factors and their change in levels. In order to find which interactions between factors are significant, the main interaction plot of seam strength was

Table 6 Experimental results for additional sample configurations.

Order 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Factors A 10 10 10 10 13 13 13 13 B 15 15 20 20 20 20 15 15 C II II X X II II X X D LSb LSc LSb LSc LSc LSb LSb LSc Seam strength (N/m) 75013.1 (4817.7)* 77196.9 (3959.7) 74167.5 (5274.9) 90199.0 (3639) 90523.7 (4903.2) 88551.1 (4642) 43514.1 (6567.3) 75950.5 (3584.1) Predicted seam strength (N/m) 42972.4 52352.6 56110.2 65490.5 87698.1 78317.9 57136.7 66517.0

* Standard deviations are given in brackets.

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Figure 6 Main interaction plot for SNR seam strength

drawn using MINITAB. TDOE suggests studying the interactions between two single factors only. The interactions between each two factors (all possible combinations) are given in Figure 6. An interaction is said to exist if the effect of change in level of one factor is opposite to the effect of change in level in another factor. In Figure 6, if the line connecting levels 1 and levels 2 of both factors are parallel or almost parallel, this indicates that there is no meaningful interaction taking place between these factors. No interaction means the effect of the first factor remains the same regardless of the level of the second factor and vice versa. From this standpoint, there are no meaningful interactions between factors A and B (A*B), A and D (A*D), B and D (B*D), and C and D (C*D). An interaction means the effect of the first factor (factor indicated in the row in Figure 6) depends on the level at which the second factor (factor indicated in the column in Figure 6) is used and vice versa. The greater the skew between the lines, then the greater the strength of the interactions between factors. Hence from Figure 6, it can be seen that there are interactions between factors A and C (A*C) and B and C (B*C). In order to demonstrate the strength of interactions seen in Figure 6, an ANOVA test was performed using 95% significance level. Tables 7 and 8 show B*C interaction is significant, while A*C interaction is not significant, because the P value in the first case is less than 0.05, and in

Table 7 ANOVA for A*C interaction.

Source A C Interaction Error Total DF 1 1 1 4 7 SS MS F 8.42 1.06 7.17 P 0.044 0.362 0.055

155.382 155.382 19.531 19.531

132.292 132.292 73.779 380.984 18.445

Table 8 ANOVA for B*C interaction.

Source B C Interaction Error Total DF 1 1 1 4 7 SS 132.292 19.531 15.382 73.779 380.984 MS 132.292 19.531 155.382 18.445 F 7.17 1.06 8.42 P 0.055 0.362 0.044

the second case it is more than 0.05. This result indicates that interactions of factors B and C should be considered when the joining of notched webbing is planned.

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Textile Research Journal 79(5) confidence level (CL99.9%). The test results for five samples were 94032.6, 93081.8, 81973.9, 91014.2, and 92515.8, respectively. All these values lie in the confidence interval of TDOE predicted value (87698.12 7503.8). Therefore, the experimental design could be accepted as satisfactory and valid.

Confirmation of TDOE Predictions

If the experimental seam strength attained for any configuration (for example, optimum configuration A2B2C2D2) is within the confidence interval of what TDOE predicted for the same configuration, it could be stated that the prediction is within the acceptable limits. The mean seam strength from the confirmation experiments for the optimum configuration A2B2C2D2 was found to be 90523.7 and the predicted value using TDOE was 87698.1 (order 5 in Table 6). The confidence level (CL) for the predicted value was calculated using equation (6): V e . F , 1, n CL 99.9% = --------------------Ne

Interpreting ANN Results

As mentioned earlier, the second prediction model of seam strength is implemented using an ANN. A four-layer, feed-forward, back-propagation ANN model, having four input neurons for four input variables, namely fabric width, folding length of joint, seam design and seam type, was used in the network. This network also had five hidden layer neurons and one output neuron to output seam strength. Figure 7 shows this model, which was generated by QWIKNET (version 2.23, Artificial Neural Network For Windows, Craig Jensen, 2002, Redmond, WA, U.S.A.). The ANN algorithm is implemented in C++. The experimental data set (which is used in TDOE input) is also used in this second model of prediction. The data set is split into training data and testing data: 60 training patterns and 10 testing patterns were used to train and test

(6)

where Ve represents error variances of mean standard error, F, 1, n is the F value from the F-table for significance level , 1 degree of freedom, and n sample size; Ne is the effective number of replications. For the present study, mean standard error = 34919131, Ne = 8, table value of F0.001,1,35 = 12.90, and hence CL99.9% = 7503.8. This suggests the actual experimental seam strength could vary within 7503.8 of the predicted value of TDOE at 99.9%

Figure 7 Four-layer, feed-forward, back-propagation ANN.

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Figure 8 The comparison of experimental values with predicted values derived from TDOE and ANN.

Table 9 Training data.

A 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 B 1 1 1 2 2 1 1 2 1 2 1 1 C 2 2 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 1 1 D 2 1 1 2 1 2 1 2 2 1 1 2 1. Cycle 73160,0 62670,8 36010,2 84034,0 75303,1 70994,2 77508,8 80540,1 71093,1 71897,5 39799,2 59801,8 2. Cycle 62708,5 60889,9 50808,3 90402,9 77159,4 78019,7 57358,3 70684,8 61018,2 61606,8 35353,7 50649,8 3. Cycle 74231,5 63508,4 37836,4 71092,3 75559,6 78978,0 56716,9 57803,5 62497,2 58452,5 35587,7 52309,9 4. Cycle 75687,9 61463,4 43865,8 76563,3 77732,9 73295,8 52408,0 64708,3 58195,9 62255,8 32848,4 48408,6 5. Cycle 63666,9 60497,5 49050,0 87007,2 75008,8 78464,9 62406,7 65742,1 60512,6 54528,5 30561,9 51087,5

Table 10 Testing data.

A 1 1 B 2 2 C 1 1 D 1 2 1. Cycle 68267,8 86210,3 2. Cycle 61320,0 72541,2 3. Cycle 53223,0 69379,3 4. Cycle 57690,3 66896,7 5. Cycle 60512,6 71786,6

the ANN, respectively. Both the data sets are given in Tables 9 and 10. The test data set was used to evaluate the prediction capability of ANN as well as TDOE. This evaluation was made against the experimental data obtained for specimens prepared for the parameters specified by the ten patterns in the test data set. It is worthwhile noting that the same experimental data set was used to assess the TDOE result.

Conclusion
The TDOE and ANN approaches were successfully applied to predict the seam strength of webbings used in many parachute assemblies. The effects of fabric width, folding length of joint, seam type and seam design on the seam strength were analyzed. An L8 orthogonal array was used in planning the Taguchi experiments in this work. The TDOE revealed (based on SNR performance criteria) that fabric width,

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folding length of joint and the interaction of folding length of joint and seam design significantly affect seam strength. The TDOE was also used to find the optimal configuration, which was A2B2C2D2: this corresponds to a fabric width of 13, folding length of joint of 20, seam design of II, seam type of LSc. The TDOE and ANN predictions were found to be satisfactory for several of the patterns tested. In addition, the prediction by the ANN model was compared with that of TDOE. It was found that ANN had better predictions of the experimental seam strength of jointed notched webbing than the TDOE predictions. In these comparisons, RMSE values were used as comparative metrics. As a result, it can be said that ANN appears to be a reliable and useful tool in characterizing the effect of some critical manufacturing parameters on the seam strength of webbing, if a sufficient number of replicated experimental data are available to train the ANN.

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Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Dr Kerim Guney, Dean of Engineering, Dr Kadir Bilisik, Head of the Textile Engineering Department and Dr Nafiz Kahraman, Head of the Mustafa Cikrikcioglu Vocational School for their approval to carry out the research.
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