On a physics-compatible approach for data-driven computational mechanics

Within the framework of the thermodynamics of irreversible processes, one introduces a general vision of data-driven computational mechanics, adapted to history-dependent materials, through the concept of the “Experimental Constitutive Manifold” (ECM). The mathematical structure of the ECM, which involves internal state variables, constitutes the material model associated with the available experimental data. The hidden variables are not known a priori but are calculated from the experimental data thanks to the so-called “ECM-Central Problem”. This paper also tries to present recent advances in the data-driven computation approach. The potential applications are illustrated through the proposed new way to describe mathematically the material, where a priori assumptions on modelling are absent.