Modified error-in-constitutive-relation (MECR) framework for the characterization of linear viscoelastic solids

We develop an error-in-constitutive-relation (ECR) approach toward the full-field characterization of linear viscoelastic solids described within the framework of standard generalized materials. To this end, we formulate the viscoelastic behavior in terms of the (Helmholtz) free energy potential and a dissipation potential. Assuming the availability of full-field interior kinematic data, the constitutive mismatch between the kinematic quantities (strains and internal thermodynamic variables) and their “stress” counterparts (Cauchy stress tensor and that of thermodynamic tensions), commonly referred to as the ECR functional, is established with the aid of Legendre–Fenchel gap functionals linking the thermodynamic potentials to their energetic conjugates. We then proceed by introducing the modified ECR (MECR) functional as a linear combination between its ECR parent and the kinematic data misfit, computed for a trial set of constitutive parameters. The affiliated stationarity conditions then yield two coupled evolution problems, namely (i) the forward evolution problem for the (trial) displacement field driven by the constitutive mismatch, and (ii) the backward evolution problem for the adjoint field driven by the data mismatch. This allows us to establish compact expressions for the MECR functional and its gradient with respect to the viscoelastic constitutive parameters. For generality, the formulation is established assuming both time-domain (i.e. transient) and frequency-domain data. We illustrate the developments in a two-dimensional setting by pursuing the multi-frequency MECR reconstruction of (i) piecewise-homogeneous standard linear solid, and (b) smoothly-varying Jeffreys viscoelastic material.