The estimation of material parameters of a fluid-solid mixture

A numerical-experimental technique for the characterization of the mechanical behaviour of materials modeled as a mixture of an elastic solid matrix and an ideal fluid, is presented. Starting point is an identification technique, similar to the technique presented by Hendriks (1991). This technique uses the differences between measured and computed field quantities to adjust a priori estimates of material parameters. In this paper parameter identification based on combined fluid pressure and displacement measurements is investigated. As a simple test problem a simulation of a bulge compression experiment is considered. In this ‘experiment’ it is possible to estimate Young’s modulus E, Poisson’s ratio v, and the permeability K of the solid phase. From these tests it can be concluded that it is worthwhile to use both pressure and displacement measurements for the estimation process.