Received: 24 April 2019 Revised: 26 November 2019 Accepted: 10 February 2020 DOI: 10.1002/nme.6338 RESEARCH ARTICLE Finite element model updating using crow search algorithm with Levy flight Hao Wu 1,2 Pingbo Wu 1 Kai Xu 2,3 Fansong Li 1 1 State Key Laboratory of Traction Power, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, P.R. China 2 Mechanical Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, 3 School of Mechanical Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, P.R. China Correspondence Fansong Li, State Key Laboratory of Traction Power, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, P.R. China. Email: lifansong2013@163.com Funding information Independent Research and Development Project of the State Key Laboratory of Traction Power, 2020TPL-T09; National Natural Science Foundation of China, 11790282 Summary The accuracy of the finite element model is essential for fatigue analysis and vibration of a flexible body. This paper presents a finite element model updat- ing (FEMU) algorithm based on crows search algorithm incorporated with Levy flight (LFCSA). The proposed algorithm is tested on the updating of two differ- ent cases: a simple structure (beam) and a complex structure (gearbox housing). To verify the performance of LFCSA, two optimization algorithm, which is the standard CSA and the particle swarm optimization algorithm with Levy flight (LFPSO), are applied to FEMU of the simple beam. The result of the comparison shows that the LFCSA has sufficient convergence speed and global search abil- ity in the implementation of FEMU. In the case of gearbox housing, the error of frequencies and mode shapes are analyzed to indicate that the LFCSA gives a satisfactory result in a complex structure. KEYWORDS crow search algorithm, finite element model updating, gearbox housing, Levy flight 1 INTRODUCTION Finite element (FE) model, which usually gives results that are not the same as the results presented by an experiment, is a numerical method used to provide approximate solutions in engineering. 1,2 The inaccuracy of the FE model is generally caused by structure error, order error, and parameter error. Finite element model updating (FEMU) is a procedure aimed at minimizing the discrepancy between the numerical and the experiment results to ensure that the FE model better reflects the physical properties of the structure. FEMU is fundamentally a constrained optimization approach, and the objective function of the optimization problem is generally an equation that characterizes the error between experimental and numerical quantities, such as the structure's natural frequencies and mode shapes. FEMU can be performed by manual or automatic. Altunisik 3 used manual model updating procedure to update a long span reinforced concrete highway bridge model based on the ambient vibration. A lot of researches 4-7 have been done on FEMU and various computational methods, which include Bayesian theory 8-10 and particle search algorithm, have been proposed. Ren et al 11 presented a response surface-based method for FEMU based on the measured static response of structures, which has the advantages of easy implementation, high cost-efficiency, and sufficient updating accuracy. Boulkaibet et al 12 applied the innovative volitive operator of fish school search which is incorporated into the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm to FEMU. Marwala 13 systematically studied the application of intelligent algorithms in FEMU. The algorithms considered include the genetic algorithm, 2916 © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/nme Int J Numer Methods Eng. 2020;121:2916–2928.