Calibration of constitutive models with error control

Doctoral thesis, 2007

In this thesis a framework for the calibration of constitutive models is presented. The framework involves the formulation of an optimization problem which is solved using strategies based on, essentially, Newton's method. The introduction of an additional costate field in order to incorporate the state equation has the advantage that error control in an arbitrary "goal" quantity is formally straightforward. The errors analyzed are those that arise from the Finite Element discretization and from uncertainties in the experimental data. Among the applications, moisture transport in wood and nonlinear viscoelasticity are discussed in more detail.