Characterization of material properties using inverse method

The inverse analysis introduced in this dissertation involves detennining an object's properties. In engineering problems, the most important object properties are material or constitutive constants (elastic/plastic). In direct problems, engineers can conveniently look up for the material constants in standard materials handbooks, and use them to pred'ict the structure's responses under the given loads. However, in the cases where the material constants are not available from standard handbooks, or the material properties need to be detennined precisely since a small difference from those listed may have a great influence on the results, inverse methods will need to be used. So far the characterization inverse methods focus mostly on homogeneous isotropic or orthotropic materials. Primarily the characterization concentrated on two important material parameters: Young's Modulus and Poisson's ratio. An experimental-numerical solution of inverse method is brought up, which is verified to be more efficient than previous methods, in the characterization of homogeneous isotropic materials and orthotropic materials. Another important part of this thesis is the inverse method for the characterization of heterogeneous material properties. Applications of this inverse method show its capability in predicting inhomogeneous distribution of material constants. Furthermore, this heterogeneous characterization method can also provide detail localized material information for studies such as trivial initial crack failure evolution, etc.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo