Surface texture image classification of carbon/phenolic composites in extreme environments using deep learning

Abstract The classification of ablation images holds significant practical value in thermal protection structures, as it enables the assessment of heat and corrosion resistance of composites. This paper proposes an image‐based deep learning framework to identify the surface texture of carbon/phenolic composites ablative images. First, ablation experiments and collection of surface texture images of carbon/phenolic composites under different thermal environments were conducted in an electric arc wind tunnel. Then, a deep learning model based on a convolutional neural network (CNN) is developed for ablative image classification. The pre‐trained network is ultimately employed as the input for transfer learning. The network's feature extraction layer is trained using the ImageNet dataset, while the global average pooling addresses specific classification tasks. The test results demonstrate that the proposed method effectively classifies the relatively small surface texture dataset, enhances the classification performance of ablative surface texture with an accuracy of up to 97.6%, and exhibits robustness and generalization capabilities. Highlights The paper proposes a new deep learning classification method for ablative images. A model highly sensitive to small and weak features is built. Transfer learning and data enhancement techniques are introduced into classification.