Abstract: It was presented a finite element ( FE) model updating strategy based on static virtual distortion method ( VDM) which belonged to the fast and exact structural reanalysis methods． The influence matrix of beam element and structural displacement sensitivity based on VDM were deduced． According to the static displacements and influence matrix of initial structure，the nodal displacements of interest could be recalculated and then FE model updating could be implemented without modifying structural stiffness matrix． Different from the traditional algorithm requiring stiffness matrix inversion，the corresponding static displacement sensitivity could be directly obtained using VDM， thus enhancing computational efficiency． Finally，FE model updating of a plane frame structure was conducted using numerical simulation results and measured displacements respectively．