Identifying Constitutive Parameters from Heterogeneous Strain Fields using the Virtual Fields Method

The main features of the Virtual Fields Method, which is aimed at retrieving constitutive parameters from full-field measurements, are given in this paper. This method is based on the principle of virtual work which is recalled here. The different aspects of the procedure are then briefly explored, notably the choice of the virtual fields and the different types of constitutive equations that can be considered with this identification technique.