Physics-informed Data-driven Discovery of Constitutive Models with Application to Strain-Rate-sensitive Soft Materials

TL;DR

This paper introduces a physics-informed machine learning approach for modeling strain-rate-sensitive soft materials, combining continuum thermodynamics with Gaussian process regression to improve prediction accuracy and generalizability.

Contribution

It develops a novel data-driven constitutive model that enforces thermodynamic and physical constraints, enhancing predictive capabilities over traditional models.

Findings

Accurately predicts stress responses in multiple deformation modes.

Enforces thermodynamic and physical constraints in modeling.

Outperforms classical and purely data-driven models in accuracy and generalizability.

Abstract

A novel data-driven constitutive modeling approach is proposed, which combines the physics-informed nature of modeling based on continuum thermodynamics with the benefits of machine learning. This approach is demonstrated on strain-rate-sensitive soft materials. This model is based on the viscous dissipation-based visco-hyperelasticity framework where the total stress is decomposed into volumetric, isochoric hyperelastic, and isochoric viscous overstress contributions. It is shown that each of these stress components can be written as linear combinations of the components of an irreducible integrity basis. Three Gaussian process regression-based surrogate models are trained (one per stress component) between principal invariants of strain and strain rate tensors and the corresponding coefficients of the integrity basis components. It is demonstrated that this type of model construction enforces key physics-based constraints on the predicted responses: the second law of thermodynamics, the principles of local action and determinism, objectivity, the balance of angular momentum, an assumed reference state, isotropy, and limited memory. The three surrogate models that constitute our constitutive model are evaluated by training them on small-size numerically generated data sets corresponding to a single deformation mode and then analyzing their predictions over a much wider testing regime comprising multiple deformation modes. Our physics-informed data-driven constitutive model predictions are compared with the corresponding predictions of classical continuum thermodynamics-based and purely data-driven models. It is shown that our surrogate models can reasonably capture the stress-strain-strain rate responses in both training and testing regimes, and provide improvements in terms of prediction accuracy, generalizability to multiple deformation modes, and compatibility with limited data.