Graph Neural Network for Stress Predictions in Stiffened Panels Under Uniform Loading
This work addresses computational efficiency in structural analysis for engineering design, but it appears incremental as it builds on existing GNN methods for a specific domain.
The study tackled predicting stress distributions in 3D stiffened panels under uniform loading by proposing a novel graph embedding technique using GraphSAGE, demonstrating its potential as a robust reduced-order model compared to finite-element-vertex representations.
Machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) techniques have gained significant attention as reduced order models (ROMs) to computationally expensive structural analysis methods, such as finite element analysis (FEA). Graph neural network (GNN) is a particular type of neural network which processes data that can be represented as graphs. This allows for efficient representation of complex geometries that can change during conceptual design of a structure or a product. In this study, we propose a novel graph embedding technique for efficient representation of 3D stiffened panels by considering separate plate domains as vertices. This approach is considered using Graph Sampling and Aggregation (GraphSAGE) to predict stress distributions in stiffened panels with varying geometries. A comparison between a finite-element-vertex graph representation is conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. A comprehensive parametric study is performed to examine the effect of structural geometry on the prediction performance. Our results demonstrate the immense potential of graph neural networks with the proposed graph embedding method as robust reduced-order models for 3D structures.