Abstract: Purpose In order to accurately grasp the deformation evolution of the stiffened panel of ship structures frame under external load, Method the four-node inverse shell unit shape function and element theory strain were derived based on the inverse finite element method and combined with the characteristics of the hull structure. Results The results show that the reconstructed displacement field of the upper deck is in good agreement with the numerical simulation results. The reconstruction errors of structural displacement at all validation points are within 10% for the linear segment, nonlinear segment, and ultimate state of the model, which validates the effectiveness of the hull grillage displacement field method proposed in this paper.Conclusions The displacement field reconstruction method proposed in this paper can be used for indirect measurement of structural deformation fields in ship and marine engineering structures.