A fast and flexible algorithm for microstructure reconstruction combining simulated annealing and deep learning

Microstructural analyses of porous media have considerable research value when studying of macroscopic properties,and the accurate reconstruction of a digital microstructure model is an important component of this research. Computational reconstruction algorithms for microstructures have attracted much attention due to their low cost and excellent performance. However, achieving faster and more efficient reconstruction remains a challenge for computational reconstruction algorithms. The bottleneck lies in the computational reconstruction algorithms themselves, which are either too slow (traditional reconstruction algorithms) or not flexible to the training process (deep learning reconstruction algorithms). To address these limitations, we propose a fast and flexible deep learning algorithm using a neural network based on an improved simulated annealing framework (ISAF-NN). The proposed algorithm adopts structural information of the reference image to guide the network design, and uses the description function to extract feature distribution of the reference image as the objective function to complete the network optimization. Benefit from the network structure is simple and flexible, the proposed algorithm can complete training and reconstruction in a short time. By adjusting the input size, the algorithm can also achieve arbitrary sized reconstruction. The proposed algorithm is experimentally applied to several materials to verify its effectiveness and generalizability.

Automated summary

Microstructural analyses of porous media are important for studying macroscopic properties, and the accurate reconstruction of a digital microstructure model is crucial. A fast and flexible deep learning algorithm based on an improved simulated annealing framework is proposed, which utilizes structural information and feature distribution to guide the network design and optimization. The algorithm is capable of completing training and reconstruction in a short time.