Two-Step Calibration Method for Inverse Finite Element with Small Sample Features

When the inverse finite element method (inverse FEM) is used to reconstruct the deformation field of a multi-element structure with strain measurements, strain measurement errors can lower the reconstruction accuracy of the deformation field. Furthermore, the calibration ability of a self-structuring fuzzy network (SSFN) is weak when few strain samples are used to train the SSFN. To solve this problem, a novel two-step calibration method for improving the reconstruction accuracy of the inverse FEM method is proposed in this paper. Initially, the errors derived from measured displacements and reconstructed displacements are distributed to the degrees of freedom (DOFs) of nodes. Then, the DOFs of nodes are used as knots, in order to produce non-uniform rational B-spline (NURBS) curves, such that the sample size employed to train the SSFN can be enriched. Next, the SSFN model is used to determine the relationship between the measured strain and the DOFs of the end nodes. A loading deformation experiment using a three-element structure demonstrates that the proposed algorithm can significantly improve the accuracy of reconstruction displacement.