PIML-OFEM: A New Large-Scale Structural Analysis Method Based on Problem-Independent Machine Learning and Overlapping Finite Element Technique
High-resolution analysis and design of large-scale heterogeneous structures require accurate reduced-order models and efficient online computation. Existing multiscale methods must repeatedly construct local basis functions for different material distributions, whereas substructure-based problem-independent machine learning (PIML) methods can be limited by prescribed boundary displacement interpolation. We propose PIML-OFEM, an overlapping finite element method accelerated by problem-independent machine learning. Each substructure retains only its corner-node degrees of freedom. Oversampled numerical basis functions are constructed by solving local elasticity problems on extended domains and restricting the solutions to the target substructure, eliminating prescribed displacement interpolation on its boundary. Independently constructed local bases are blended through a partition-of-unity overlapping formulation to obtain a globally continuous displacement field. A U-Net learns the mapping from local Young's modulus distributions to numerical basis functions, replacing repeated online local solves and allowing the model to be reused across load cases and global boundary conditions. Numerical examples show close agreement with fine-scale finite element results in displacement and elemental strain energy. PIML-OFEM reduces online computational cost relative to direct finite element analysis and improves accuracy over PIML substructure models based on linear boundary interpolation. In topology optimization, the method supports stable high-resolution iterations with small filter radii and preserves fine-scale features, including local patterns resembling rank-2 microstructures. The framework provides an efficient physics-data approach for large-scale heterogeneous structural analysis and high-resolution topology optimization.