Critical evaluation of PINN for FWD inverse analysis and differentiable FEM as an alternative
A new research paper critically evaluates the use of Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINNs) for inverse analysis in multilayer pavement systems, finding them unsuitable due to sharp domain discontinuities. The study proposes differentiable Finite Element Method (DiffFEM) as a more robust and efficient alternative, which consistently provides accurate and stable inversion results. The findings suggest that DiffFEM's hard constraint approach to physics outperforms PINN's soft constraint method, especially when dealing with complex, discontinuous systems. AI
IMPACT Suggests DiffFEM may be more practical than PINNs for specific engineering problems requiring robust inverse analysis.