The method of fundamental solutions for the detection of rigid inclusions and cavities in plane linear elastic bodies

We investigate the numerical reconstruction of smooth star-shaped voids (rigid inclusions and cavities) which are compactly contained in a two-dimensional isotropic linear elastic body from a single non-destructive measurement of both the displacement and traction vectors (Cauchy data) on the external boundary. The displacement vector satisfying the Lamé system in linear elasticity is approximated using the meshless method of fundamental solutions (MFS). The fictitious source points are located both outside the (known) outer boundary of the body and inside the (unknown) void. The inverse geometric problem is then reduced to finding the minimum of a nonlinear least-squares functional that measures the gap between the given and computed data, penalized with respect to both the MFS constants and the derivative of the radial polar coordinates describing the position of the star-shaped void. The interior source points are anchored and move with the void during the iterative reconstruction procedure. The stability of the numerical method is investigated by inverting measurements contaminated with noise.

► Application of the MFS to inverse problems in elasticity.
► Accurate results obtained for exact data.
► Regularization yields improved results when noise is introduced to the input data.