IDENT 1D - a novel software tool for an easy identification of material constitutive parameters

Non-linear finite element computations make use of very sophisticated const itutive equations for the description of materials behaviour. The first dif ficulty encountered by potential users is the gap existing between raw mate rial characterisation on uniaxial specimens and the knowledge of the requir ed equation's parameters. There are very few softwares for this particular task. IDENT 1D is a special software developed under Matlab language in our laboratory, which is able to provide a complete optimised parameters set f or implemented models. The originality of IDENT 1D is that no initial estim ation of the material parameters is requested of the user. Two main example s are described in this article: the Lemaitre and Chaboche (1990) creep law coupled with damage and a non unified cyclic law proposed by Contesti and Cailletaud (1989) with a separation of plastic and viscous strain terms whi ch is called DDI model. For both laws, the identification method is complet ely described. Each method is then applied to a set of experimental data. I n both cases, the results of the parameters identification show a very good agreement with experimental data. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All right s reserved.