A finite-element-inspired bipartite graph learned simulator for manufacturability assessment in large-deformation sheet forming

Finite element analysis (FEA) is essential for structural design but remains computationally expensive, particularly when evaluating multiple design iterations or load scenarios. Machine learning surrogate models offer a promising alternative, yet most approaches struggle with a critical limitation: generalizing across varying geometries. This work presents a mesh graph network (MGN) for predicting von Mises stress fields in 2D structural components with arbitrary hole geometries. Unlike traditional machine learning approaches that use absolute node coordinates as features, the proposed model builds on existing MGN frameworks that encode node types (e.g., fixed boundary, free surface, hole edge), relative edge features (distance between neighbors), and global features (applied load). This architecture is inherently translation- and rotation-invariant, enabling generalization to unseen geometries without retraining. The MGN was trained on 11 plate geometries under 20 load conditions and evaluated on 7 unseen geometries and 3 unseen loads. In the most favorable case, the model achieves $R^2 \geq 0.97$ on an unseen geometry and unseen load, compared to $R^2 \approx 0.01$--$0.86$ for conventional models (Random Forest, Gradient Boosting , K-Nearest Neighbors) trained on identical data. However, even in less favorable cases, the MGN model still outperforms conventional models. This work extends the mesh-based simulation framework of Pfaff et al. (arXiv:2010.03409) to structural mechanics, demonstrating that graph neural networks can serve as efficient surrogates for finite element analysis across varying geometries.

Nonlinear finite element crash simulations are accurate but computationally expensive, limiting their use in iterative design optimisation. Machine-learning surrogate models based on graph neural networks (GNNs) offer a faster alternative. Message-passing GNNs are widely used for mesh simulation, and their shared node and edge update functions are relatively generalisable across varying graph structures. By contrast, non-shareable edge-specific aggregation layers can capture nonlinear relationships more accurately but usually require fixed graph connectivity, which limits generalisability. This paper presents Mask-Morph Graph U-Net (MMGUNet), a practical approach to addressing the limitation of hierarchical Graph U-Net architectures that use edge-specific downsampling and upsampling layers. Fixed coarse graph connectivity is required for edge-specific layers. To retain this while improving spatial correspondence, the proposed method morphs the coarsened graph hierarchy to each input mesh using feature-aligned barycentric parameterisation before constructing cross-graph edges. It further applies node masking during supervised pretraining, followed by parameter-efficient fine-tuning in which high-parameter edge-specific layers are frozen. The proposed approach is evaluated in in-distribution, out-of-distribution, and cross-component transfer settings using mean Euclidean distance and maximum intrusion percentage error. Results show that coarse-graph morphing improves test accuracy relative to a fixed-coarse-graph baseline, while masked supervised pretraining reduces the train-test discrepancy and improves data efficiency during transfer. The proposed model also achieves lower prediction error compared with external baselines. These results demonstrate a practical route toward reusable, data-efficient mesh-based surrogate modelling for crashworthiness design exploration.

Traditional sheet metal forming relies on time-consuming and expensive Finite Element Analysis (FEA) for design validation, a process that significantly prolongs design cycles. While surrogate models offer faster iteration, current approaches have limitations: scalar-based methods cannot capture comprehensive field-based FEA results, while existing image-based models often ignore the critical role of material properties by focusing solely on geometry. To address this gap, we develop a physics-guided deep learning framework, namely StampFormer, which simultaneously uses component geometry and material stress-strain responses to predict FEA outcomes. The StampFormer framework uses three core components to process data. A Material-Augmented Geometric Network (MAGN) first fuses geometric and material data. This information is then integrated at various levels by a Hierarchical Material Embedding Injection Unit (HMEIU) before being processed by the primary network backbone, an adapted Swin-UNet. We evaluated our model on the stamping of a crossmember panel with two simulation datasets for steel and aluminium panels, and results demonstrate that StampFormer provides high-fidelity predictions of critical physical fields - including thinning, major strain, minor strain, plastic strain, and displacement - in under a second. Compared with ground truth FEA, our model achieved an average relative error of less than 8.5% on the four 2D fields and a mean squared error of less than 1.2 mm2 for the 3D displacement field. In summary, we introduce a practical and efficient framework that integrates multimodal information, namely geometry and material properties, to provide fast and accurate predictions, enabling designers to perform real-time manufacturability assessments.