Identification of the parameters of an elastic material model using the constitutive equation gap method

Today, the identification ofmaterialmodel parameters is based more and more on full-field measurements. This article explains how an appropriate use of the constitutive equation gap method (CEGM) can help in this context. The CEGM is a well-known concept which, until now, has been used mainly for the verification of finite element simulations. This has led to many developments, especially concerning the techniques for constructing statically admissible stress fields. The originality of the present study resides in the application of these recent developments to the identification problem. The proposed CEGM is described in detail, then evaluated through the identification of heterogeneous isotropic elastic properties. The results obtained are systematically compared with those of the equilibrium gap method, which is a well-known technique for the resolution of such identification problems. We prove that the use of the enhanced CEGM significantly improves the quality of the results. © Springer-Verlag 2010.