Crash Assessment via Mesh-Based Graph Neural Networks and Physics-Aware Attention

Abstract

Full-vehicle crash simulations are computationally expensive, limiting their use in iterative design exploration. This work investigates learned hybrid surrogate models (MeshTransolver, MeshGeoTransolver, and MeshGeoFLARE) for predicting time-resolved structural deformation fields in an industrial lateral pole-impact benchmark. We evaluate whether neural surrogates can reproduce full-field crash kinematics with sufficient accuracy, spatial regularity, and structural plausibility for engineering interpretation. The proposed architectures combine local mesh message passing, geometry-aware global attention, and sparse contact-aware correction for autoregressive crash rollout. We compare mesh-based graph neural networks, attention-based geometric models, and hybrid architectures under a common training and hyperparameter configuration. The hybrid models capture both short-range structural interactions and long-range deformation patterns, while a sparse contact-aware variant assesses the effect of dynamic proximity interactions during rollout. On a 25-sample full-vehicle test set, the best hybrid model achieves a temporal mean root-mean-square error of 3.20 mm. While geometry-aware attention baselines are quantitatively competitive, qualitative side-view inspection shows they can introduce local spatial noise and deformation irregularities that complicate structural interpretation. In contrast, hybrid mesh-attention models provide the best balance between scalar accuracy, survival-space consistency, and physically interpretable displacement fields. These results suggest that crash surrogate assessment should combine global error metrics with downstream safety-relevant quantities and qualitative field inspection. The proposed methodology enables fast full-field predictions while preserving essential structural information for industrial crash-engineering analysis.