Automatic translation of stress skeletons via Laplacian-based contraction

• The curve skeleton in the field of structural topology optimization is applied. • A stress skeleton model considering geometric and structural features is constructed. • A method for calculating complex structures with low cost is proposed. The substantial computational cost of virtual models poses a significant challenge to the implementation of fine analysis in construction. This paper introduces a stress-weighted scheme within the curve skeleton extraction process, facilitated by Laplacian contraction. The resultant skeleton is delineated as a 1D curve that captures the load paths, effectively representing both the geometric and structural topological characteristics. The calculation formula of the stress weight scheme is derived based on the magnitude and direction of the stress vector. As a case study, the Dougong, a historical timber structure from 1636 to 1912 AD in China, is used to validate the method. This approach demonstrates a remarkable reduction in computational time, with only 3 % of the time needed for the refined model. The algorithm established in this paper can provide technical support for the automatic processing of mechanical property feature extraction, topology optimization of complex substructures, and large-scale numerical simulation.