Lifetime prediction of epoxy coating using convolutional neural networks and post processing image recognition methods

The rapid failure of organic coatings in deep-sea environments complicates accurate lifetime prediction. Given the rapid cracking characteristic on the coating surface in this environment, a comprehensive “performance-structure” failure model was established. Initially, a targeted image recognition approach containing convolutional neural network (CNN) and post-processing was constructed for the crack area detection. An overall precision of 82.81% demonstrated the network’s good accuracy. The length distribution and the statistical evolution of cracks were extracted from SEM images to obtain the kinetic equation of the cracks related to coating structure degradation. In addition, the kinetics of water diffusion and coating adhesion were examined, as they represent critical parameters of coating performance. Based on this achievement, a failure model incorporating three dominant factors was integrated by the gray relational analysis method. The average prediction error of the model was 2.60%, which lays the groundwork for developing image-based methods to predict coating life.