Disentangling History and Propagation Dependencies in Cross-Subject Knee Contact Stress Prediction Using a Shared MeshGraphNet Backbone

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Main Authors: Pan, Zhengye, Zuo, Jianwei, Luo, Jiajia
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Pan, Zhengye
Zuo, Jianwei
Luo, Jiajia
author_facet Pan, Zhengye
Zuo, Jianwei
Luo, Jiajia
contents Background:Subject-specific finite element analysis accurately characterizes knee joint mechanics but is computationally expensive. Deep surrogate models provide a rapid alternative, yet their generalization across subjects under limited pose and load inputs remains unclear. It remains unclear whether the dominant source of prediction uncertainty arises from temporal history dependence or spatial propagation dependence. Methods:To disentangle these factors, we employed a shared MGN backbone with a fixed mesh topology. A dataset of running trials from nine subjects was constructed using an OpenSim-FEBio workflow. We developed four model variants to isolate specific dependencies: (1) a baseline MGN; (2) CT-MGN, incorporating a Control Transformer to encode short-horizon history; (3) MsgModMGN, applying state-conditioned modulation to message passing for adaptive propagation; (4) CT-MsgModMGN, combining both mechanisms. Models were evaluated using a rigorous grouped 3-fold cross-validation on unseen subjects.Results:The models incorporating history encoding significantly outperformed the baseline MGN and MsgModMGN in global accuracy and spatial consistency. Crucially, the CT module effectively mitigated the peak-shaving defect common in deep surrogates, significantly reducing peak stress prediction errors. In contrast, the spatial propagation modulation alone yielded no significant improvement over the baseline, and combining it with CT provided no additional benefit.Conclusion:Temporal history dependence, rather than spatial propagation modulation, is the primary driver of prediction uncertainty in cross-subject knee contact mechanics. Explicitly encoding short-horizon driver sequences enables the surrogate model to recover implicit phase information, thereby achieving superior fidelity in peak-stress capture and high-risk localization compared to purely state-based approaches.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_08318
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Disentangling History and Propagation Dependencies in Cross-Subject Knee Contact Stress Prediction Using a Shared MeshGraphNet Backbone
Pan, Zhengye
Zuo, Jianwei
Luo, Jiajia
Quantitative Methods
Machine Learning
Background:Subject-specific finite element analysis accurately characterizes knee joint mechanics but is computationally expensive. Deep surrogate models provide a rapid alternative, yet their generalization across subjects under limited pose and load inputs remains unclear. It remains unclear whether the dominant source of prediction uncertainty arises from temporal history dependence or spatial propagation dependence. Methods:To disentangle these factors, we employed a shared MGN backbone with a fixed mesh topology. A dataset of running trials from nine subjects was constructed using an OpenSim-FEBio workflow. We developed four model variants to isolate specific dependencies: (1) a baseline MGN; (2) CT-MGN, incorporating a Control Transformer to encode short-horizon history; (3) MsgModMGN, applying state-conditioned modulation to message passing for adaptive propagation; (4) CT-MsgModMGN, combining both mechanisms. Models were evaluated using a rigorous grouped 3-fold cross-validation on unseen subjects.Results:The models incorporating history encoding significantly outperformed the baseline MGN and MsgModMGN in global accuracy and spatial consistency. Crucially, the CT module effectively mitigated the peak-shaving defect common in deep surrogates, significantly reducing peak stress prediction errors. In contrast, the spatial propagation modulation alone yielded no significant improvement over the baseline, and combining it with CT provided no additional benefit.Conclusion:Temporal history dependence, rather than spatial propagation modulation, is the primary driver of prediction uncertainty in cross-subject knee contact mechanics. Explicitly encoding short-horizon driver sequences enables the surrogate model to recover implicit phase information, thereby achieving superior fidelity in peak-stress capture and high-risk localization compared to purely state-based approaches.
title Disentangling History and Propagation Dependencies in Cross-Subject Knee Contact Stress Prediction Using a Shared MeshGraphNet Backbone
topic Quantitative Methods
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.08318