Predicting the quality of materials after they are subjected to plasma sintering is a challenging task because of the non-linear relationships between the process variables and mechanical properties. Furthermore, the variables governing the sintering process affect the microstructure and the mechanical properties of the final product. Therefore, an artificial neural network modeling was carried out to correlate the parameters of the spark plasma sintering process with the densification and hardness values of Ti-6Al-4V alloys dispersed with nano-sized TiN particles. The relative density (%), effective density (g/cm3), and hardness (HV) were estimated as functions of sintering temperature (oC), time (min), and composition (change in % TiN). A total of 20 datasets were collected from the open literature to develop the model. The high-level accuracy in model predictions (>80%) discloses the complex relationships among the sintering process variables, product quality, and mechanical performance. Further, the effect of sintering temperature, time, and TiN percentage on the density and hardness values were quantitatively estimated with the help of the developed model.

Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Model development
3. Result and discussion
    3.1. Weights distribution and model validation
    3.2. Correlation of input and output variables
    3.3. 3D surface plots
4. Conclusions
References

• A. K. Maurya(School of Materials Science and Engineering, Engineering Research Institute, Gyeongsang National University, Advanced Metals Division, Titanium Department, Korea Institute of Materials Scienc)
• P. L Narayana(School of Materials Science and Engineering, Engineering Research Institute, Gyeongsang National University, Advanced Metals Division, Titanium Department, Korea Institute of Materials Scienc)
• Hong In Kim(School of Materials Science and Engineering, Engineering Research Institute, Gyeongsang National University)
• N. S. Reddy(School of Materials Science and Engineering, Engineering Research Institute, Gyeongsang National University) Corresponding Author