A class of optimal virtual fields for inverse problems in elasticity

This work addresses the identification of nonhomogeneous constitutive parameters from full-field measurements in both linear and nonlinear elasticity, considering incompressible as well as compressible materials. The inverse identification procedure relies on the Virtual Fields Method (VFM), which is based on the principle of virtual work with specifically chosen virtual fields. We propose an optimal class of virtual fields, designed to optimize the reconstruction stability with respect to measurement noise. A series of numerical experiments illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The method exhibits moderate sensitivity to measurement noise and remains robust even when the boundary conditions are only partially known.