Bayesian optimal design accelerates discovery of material properties from bubble dynamics

An optimal sequential experimental design approach is developed to characterize soft material properties at the high strain rates associated with bubble cavitation. The approach involves optimal design and model inference. The optimal design strategy maximizes the expected information gain in a Bayesian statistical setting to design experiments that provide the most informative cavitation data about unknown material properties. We infer constitutive models by characterizing the associated viscoelastic properties from measurements via a hybrid ensemble-based 4D-Var method (En4D-Var). The inertial microcavitation-based high strain-rate rheometry (IMR) method (Estrada et al. 2018) is used to simulate the bubble dynamics under laser-induced cavitation. Two sets of constitutive models demonstrate the method. We generate synthetic experimental data representing the viscoelastic behavior of stiff and soft polyacrylamide hydrogels. Accurate and efficient characterizations of the underlying models are presented.