ERROR ON THE CONSTITUTIVE RELATION IN THE NONLINEAR FORMULATION OF ELASTIC BEAMS - THE PLANE CASE

The error measure we propose in this study is based on the mechanics c oncept of error on the constitutive relation. The error on the constit utive relation has already been used for the updating of elastic struc tures in dynamics, under the small perturbation assumption. Here, we e xtend this concept to the context of geometrically nonlinear elastic b eams (large rotations and finite strains). It is shown that the propos ed strategy, which uses measured experimental data, enables us to loca te damaged substructures or, if the quality of the model is to be chec ked, the method provides the location of the zones of modelling errors . The formulation and its derivation are developed and a complete algo rithmic treatment is presented. The implications of the formulation of the errors location discussed in this paper are illustrated through a set of numerical examples. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.