Generalized parameter identification for finite viscoelasticity Original Research Article

Elastomeric and other rubber-like materials are often simultaneously exposed to short- and long-time loads within engineering applications. When aiming at establishing a general simulation tool for viscoelastic media over these different time scales, a suitable material model and its corresponding material parameters can only be determined if an appropriate number of experimental data is taken into account. In this work we present an algorithm for the identification of material parameters for large strain viscoelasticity in which data of multiple experiments are considered. Based on this method the experimental loading intervals for long-time experiments can be shortened in time and the parameter identification procedure is now referred to experimental data of tests under short- and long-time loads without separating the parameters due to these different time scales. The employed viscoelastic material law is based on a nonlinear evolution law and valid far from thermodynamic equilibrium. The identification is carried out by minimizing a least squares functional comparing inhomogeneous displacement fields from experiments and FEM simulations at given (measured) force loads. Within this optimization procedure all material parameters are identified simultaneously by means of a gradient based method for which a semi-analytical sensitivity analysis is calculated. A representative numerical example is referred to measured data based on short-time and long-time tests of a non-cellular polyurethane. As an advantage, the developed identification scheme renders solely one single set of material parameters.