Teacher-Student Guided Inverse Modeling for Steel Final Hardness Estimation

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Alsheikh, Ahmad, Fischer, Andreas
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Alsheikh, Ahmad
Fischer, Andreas
author_facet Alsheikh, Ahmad
Fischer, Andreas
contents Predicting the final hardness of steel after heat treatment is a challenging regression task due to the many-to-one nature of the process -- different combinations of input parameters (such as temperature, duration, and chemical composition) can result in the same hardness value. This ambiguity makes the inverse problem, estimating input parameters from a desired hardness, particularly difficult. In this work, we propose a novel solution using a Teacher-Student learning framework. First, a forward model (Teacher) is trained to predict final hardness from 13 metallurgical input features. Then, a backward model (Student) is trained to infer plausible input configurations from a target hardness value. The Student is optimized by leveraging feedback from the Teacher in an iterative, supervised loop. We evaluate our method on a publicly available tempered steel dataset and compare it against baseline regression and reinforcement learning models. Results show that our Teacher-Student framework not only achieves higher inverse prediction accuracy but also requires significantly less computational time, demonstrating its effectiveness and efficiency for inverse process modeling in materials science.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_05402
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Teacher-Student Guided Inverse Modeling for Steel Final Hardness Estimation
Alsheikh, Ahmad
Fischer, Andreas
Artificial Intelligence
I.2.6; I.6.5
Predicting the final hardness of steel after heat treatment is a challenging regression task due to the many-to-one nature of the process -- different combinations of input parameters (such as temperature, duration, and chemical composition) can result in the same hardness value. This ambiguity makes the inverse problem, estimating input parameters from a desired hardness, particularly difficult. In this work, we propose a novel solution using a Teacher-Student learning framework. First, a forward model (Teacher) is trained to predict final hardness from 13 metallurgical input features. Then, a backward model (Student) is trained to infer plausible input configurations from a target hardness value. The Student is optimized by leveraging feedback from the Teacher in an iterative, supervised loop. We evaluate our method on a publicly available tempered steel dataset and compare it against baseline regression and reinforcement learning models. Results show that our Teacher-Student framework not only achieves higher inverse prediction accuracy but also requires significantly less computational time, demonstrating its effectiveness and efficiency for inverse process modeling in materials science.
title Teacher-Student Guided Inverse Modeling for Steel Final Hardness Estimation
topic Artificial Intelligence
I.2.6; I.6.5
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.05402