Global Sensitivity Analysis of Ultrasonic Testing Simulations of Slot-Like Defects With Multifidelity Modeling

In this paper, an efficient global sensitivity analysis (GSA) method for simulation-based ultrasonic testing (UT) of slot-like defects using multifidelity modeling with novel termination criterion is proposed. GSA quantifies the effect of quantities of interest with variability (e.g., position, height, and angle) on the output (e.g., amplitude). GSA with Sobol’ indices requires the use of Monte Carlo simulations (MCS) when dealing with nonlinear problems having many parameters. It is impractical to perform GSA directly on high-fidelity physics-based models due to their long evaluation times and the large number of required samples. Multifidelity methods construct surrogate models based on data from an accurate high-fidelity model (HFM) and fast low-fidelity models (LFMs). The multifidelity surrogates evaluate quickly and can be used in lieu of the HFM to accelerate the GSA. Conventional multifidelity methods construct the surrogate to meet a prespecified error metric before using it within an analysis. This requires a separate set of testing data and an often arbitrary error metric threshold. To avoid these, a novel multifidelity modeling termination criterion for GSA is proposed that is based on the absolute relative change of the Sobol’ indices. The proposed approach is demonstrated on a simulated UT case inspecting a slot-like defect with three uncertainty variables. The results show a potential for significant reduction in computational cost compared with conventional approaches.