Evolution TANN and the identification of internal variables and evolution equations in solid mechanics

TL;DR

This paper introduces evolution TANN (eTANN), a novel neural network approach that decouples material representation from incremental formulation, enabling continuous-time modeling of internal variables and evolution equations in solid mechanics.

Contribution

The paper presents eTANN, a new continuous-time neural network framework inspired by thermodynamics and internal variables, capable of identifying evolution equations independently of incremental formulations.

Findings

eTANN accurately models complex material behaviors like plasticity, damage, and viscosity.

The approach improves scalability and speed in multiscale analyses.

eTANN outperforms traditional models in capturing micromechanical mechanisms.

Abstract

Data-driven and deep learning approaches have demonstrated to have the potential of replacing classical constitutive models for complex materials. Yet, the necessity of structuring constitutive models with an incremental formulation has given rise to data-driven approaches where physical quantities, e.g. deformation, blend with artificial, non-physical ones, such as the increments in deformation and time. Neural networks and the consequent constitutive models depend, thus, on the particular incremental formulation, fail in identifying material representations locally in time, and suffer from poor generalization. Herein, we propose a new approach which allows, for the first time, to decouple the material representation from the incremental formulation. Inspired by the Thermodynamics-based Artificial Neural Networks (TANN) and the theory of the internal variables, the evolution TANN (eTANN) are continuous-time and, therefore, independent of the aforementioned artificial quantities. Key feature of the proposed approach is the identification of the evolution equations of the internal variables in the form of ordinary differential equations, rather than in an incremental discrete-time form. In this work, we focus attention to juxtapose and show how the various general notions of solid mechanics are implemented in eTANN. The capabilities as well as the scalability of the proposed approach are demonstrated through several applications involving a broad spectrum of complex material behaviors, from plasticity to damage and viscosity (and combination of them). Finally, we show that the proposed approach can be used to speed-up multiscale analyses, by virtue of asymptotic homogenization. eTANN provide excellent results compared to detailed fine-scale simulations and offer the possibility not only to describe the average macroscopic material behavior, but also micromechanical, complex mechanisms.