A Paradigm Shift to Assembly-like Finite Element Model Updating

In general, there is a mismatch between a finite element model (FEM) of a structure and its real behaviour. In aeronautics, this mismatch must be small because FEMs are a fundamental part of the development of an aircraft and of increasing importance with the trend to more flexible wings in modern designs. Iterative finite element model updating can be computationally expensive for complex structures, and surrogate models can be employed to reduce the computational burden. A novel approach for FEM updating, namely assembly-like, is proposed and validated using real experimental data from a flexible wing. The assembly-like model updating framework implies that the model is updated as parts are assembled. Benchmarking against the classical global, or one-shot, approach demonstrates that the proposed method is more computationally efficient, since a normalised workload proxy based on solver-reported model size and memory footprint indicates about 28% lower overall effort. Aapproximately 95% of the required solves are performed on lower-fidelity subassembly models with smaller equation counts and memory requirements. Despite the reduced reliance on full-wing evaluations, the new approach retains the fidelity, within 1% of a joint natural frequencies and modal shapes index, of the global approach.