An inverse approach to determine the constitutive model parameters from axial crushing of thin-walled square tubes

Knowledge of the behaviour of structural components is essential for their design under crash consideration. Constitutive models describe their material behaviour in finite element (FE) codes. These constitutive models are in relation to the material parameters which have to be determined. The strain rates commonly observed in crash events are in the range of 0–500 s -1. Classic experimental devices such as Hopkinson’s bars do not easily cover this range of strain rates. An inverse numerical approach based on the experimental quasi-static and dynamic axial crushing of thin-walled square tubes has therefore been developed to determine the constitutive model’s parameters. The inverse method is applied in this paper in two stages to determine the power type elastic–plastic constitutive model’s parameters and the Cowper–Symonds constitutive model’s parameters. The identified power law is compared with the results obtained by quasi-static tensile tests and shows that the identified parameters are intrinsic to the material behaviour. The Cowper– Symond’s parameters identified by this method are then used in FE simulation to predict the dynamic response of the same square tube subjected to bending loading. The results obtained show a good correlation between the experimental and numerical results.