Computer-vision-based differential remeshing for updating the geometry of finite element model

Abstract

This article presents a method that enables a finite element (FE) model to remesh itself for updating the geometric changes caused by structural damages, using computer vision (CV) techniques and geometric analyses. Currently, there is no mature automatic approach to utilize the information of structural damage detection (SDD) for structural state awareness. Thus, the purpose of this study is to automate the pipeline from the accomplishment of SDD to numerical analyses for fast structural capacity evaluation. CV techniques are used to determine the shapes and dimensions of both structural components and damages. Geometric analyses are used to develop the algorithms for automatically deleting, generating, and splitting the elements of FE models for updating the geometric changes. Experiments are performed on a plate and a C-shaped steel crossbeam of a bridge to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method and algorithms.