Learning rules for finite element mesh design

Contents and links

Introduction to finite element methods

Finite element methods are used extensively by engineers and other modellers to analyse stresses in physical structures. These structures are represented quantitatively as finite collections of elements whose deformations can then be computed using linear algebraic equations.

In order to design a numerical model of a physical structure, the modeller must decide the appropriate resolution for modelling each component part, a task requiring considerable expertise. Too fine a mesh will cause unnecessary computational overheads when running the model, whereas too coarse a mesh will produce intolerable approximation errors.

We have used ILP to induce, from examples provided by expert modellers, rules for choosing appropriate resolution values. One advantage of ILP is that the examples and rules are expressed in predicate logic, so predicates can be used to describe geometric relations between different elements. Without such expressiveness, it would be impossible to adequately describe the structure being modelled.

Learning rules for the number of elements

The resolution of a FE mesh is determined by the number of elements on each of its edges. The problem of learning rules for determining the resolution of a FE mesh is therefore, to learn rules that determine the number of elements on an edge.

The data here is from experiments conducted with Golem as reported in [Dolsak B. and Muggleton S. (1992)].

The task is to learn rules for the number of elements using the following information:

The Golem dataset

The data concerns five structures labelled ``a'' -- ``e''. The data files are as used in the original Golem experiments, and are downloadable as one compressed TAR file. Within this file, background knowledge files have a ``.b'' suffix, positive example files have a ``.f'' suffix, and negative example files have a ``.n'' suffix.

Bibliography

Dolsak B. and Muggleton S. (1992).
The application of Inductive Logic Programming to finite element mesh design.
In S. Muggleton editor, Inductive Logic Programming, Academic Press, London.

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