Patent ID: 8515675

Claim:
A method for estimating a shape of a structure, the method comprising: selecting a structure comprising a plurality of strain sensors in operable communication with the structure, each strain sensor configured to provide a measurement of strain experienced by the structure; placing the structure in a borehole; receiving the strain measurements from the plurality of strain sensors using a processing unit; creating a mesh grid comprising nodes overlaid upon a surface of the structure using the processing unit, each node related to a location of one strain sensor and assigned a strain value measured by the one strain sensor; creating an additional node overlaid upon the surface of the structure for the mesh grid using the processing unit wherein a strain value assigned to the additional node is derived from the strain value corresponding to at least one adjacent node; and performing an inverse finite method using the mesh grid with the assigned strain values to estimate the shape of the structure using the processing unit; wherein the additional node for the mesh grid is created before performing the inverse finite method.