Engineering Structures 32 (2010) 24242431

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Engineering Structures
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/engstruct

Modeling and parameter identification of granular plastomer conglomerate

submitted to internal underpressure
Robert Zalewski a, , Mariusz Pyrz b,1
a

Warsaw University of Technology, Institute of Machine Design Fundamentals, Warsaw, Narbutta 84, Poland

Lille Mechanics Laboratory University of Science and Technology of Lille, Cite Scientifique, F-59655 Villeneuve dAscq, France

article

info

Article history:
Received 13 October 2009
Received in revised form
11 February 2010
Accepted 1 April 2010
Available online 21 May 2010
Keywords:
Granular material
Underpressure
Viscoplasticity
Experiments
Modeling
Evolutionary algorithm

abstract
The paper deals with a conglomerate, composed of granular materials encapsulated in a tight,
flexible envelope. The structure is submitted to an internal underpressure using a vacuum pump. The
underpressure value has a great impact on the behaviour and properties of the medium. The experimental
study and the modeling of this phenomenon are investigated in this work. Results of uniaxial tensile
tests and characteristic hardening curves are presented for structures filled up with plastic grains.
The nonlinear behaviour of such materials is modeled using the viscoplastic constitutive Chaboches
law, requiring determination of several material parameters. The parameter identification problem is
formulated as an optimization task and solved using the evolutionary algorithm. Simulated graphs follow
precisely the experimental curves. The proposed methodology can be easily adapted to other constitutive
models and experiments.
2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Structures composed of granular materials, encapsulated in
a flexible envelope and submitted to an internal underpressure,
reveal interesting and extraordinary features. The underpressure
value has a great impact on the behaviour and properties of such
a medium. This particular ability could be very useful in some
specific, practical applications.
The construction idea of this granular medium consists of filling
a tight envelope, having unlimited shape and dimensions, by a
loose material. The envelope should be reasonably flexible, to
provide an unbounded change of the contour, according to the
constructional demands. Typical material for envelopes could be
latex or a soft plastomer.
The granular material enclosed in a tight space enables an easy
change of the structural form and use of it as a kind of a plastic
bulk filling the special encapsulation. The envelope is connected
to the vacuum pump through a valve. After filling the form
with granular material, an internal underpressure is generated,
causing the stiffening of the structure. For an appropriate value

Corresponding author. Tel.: +48 22 234 86 79; fax: +48 22 234 82 86.
E-mail addresses: robertzalewski@wp.pl (R. Zalewski),
Mariusz.Pyrz@polytech-lille.fr (M. Pyrz).
1 Tel.: +33 3 28 76 73 94.
0141-0296/$ see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.engstruct.2010.04.016

of underpressure, the baggy granular media becomes a solid like

structural material, capable of transferring relatively high stresses.
The mechanical properties of such structures, obtained on the
basis of a loose material, located in a tight space, are influenced by
many factors. The most important factor is the underpressure value
but the global material features depend also on the dimensions
and the shape of a single grain, the type of granular material,
surface roughness, filling ratio of the structure (grain volume
to the envelope volume ratio) and type of loading. Thus, the
preparation of such a granular structure submitted to internal
underpressure gives us the possibility of controlling its global
mechanical features, for example, the Youngs modulus or the
proof stress. The next benefit of these granular concretes is
an opportunity of practically arbitrary forming of their external
shapes, according to the temporary demands of a designer.
A direct example of the practical application of these structures
is a vacuum mattress a medical device used for the immobilisation of patients, especially in the case of a vertebra, pelvis or limb
trauma. New possible applications of granular media are: damping of vibrations, development of insulation casing panels, noise
reduction elements, packing systems for very fragile or precious
objects and finally, designing of temporary shapes from granular
plastic mass and freezing of their external boundaries by generating the internal underpressure.
Different experimental and technological problems of granular
material investigation have already been discussed in the authors
former papers [1,2]. The complex properties of such a medium

R. Zalewski, M. Pyrz / Engineering Structures 32 (2010) 24242431

2425

Fig. 1. The structural scheme of the granular specimen (dimensions in millimetres).

are caused mainly by viscous features and, consequently, lead to a

highly nonlinear behaviour. Moreover, an important sensitivity to
various strain rates has been observed. In this paper, only uniaxial
hardening curves are presented for polystyrene and polypropylene
grains and a selected strain rate. Previous works of the authors [2,3]
have revealed, that the behaviour of granular structures is similar
to viscoplastic materials. In [3] the results of stress-relaxation
tests are described. Rheological effects have been observed for all
applied types of granules, underpressure values and strain rates.
Based on the overall collected experimental data, the authors have
decided to propose the application of a viscoplastic constitutive
law to model the behaviour of granular structures submitted to
internal underpressure.
General discussion related to the selection of a suitable
constitutive law for the description of granular structure behaviour
and as a consequences the application of a Chaboche constitutive
model has been presented in [3]. It should be underlined that
the investigated subject is original and it is hard to find any
publications from the domain (besides the previous works of the
authors).
The modelling of granular materials is very difficult because of
the large number of individual bodies, their complicated shapes,
and the complexity and nonlinearity of their interactions. The
presence of underpressure does not simplify the problem. Different
approaches, based on continuum or distinct-particle models, have
been developed to study the behaviour of compressed granular
materials and powders [47]. Recent papers investigated in detail
particular problems of compaction, packing or filling [8,9], stress
distribution [10] and sound propagation [11]. In reference works,
granular media or powders were submitted to external pressure.
In this paper, the experimental study and the modeling of the
behaviour of granular material submitted to an internal underpressure are investigated. The results of uniaxial tensile tests and characteristic hardening curves are presented for structures filled up
with typical polymer grains. The nonlinear behaviour of such materials is modeled using the viscoplastic constitutive Chaboches law,
requiring the determination of several material parameters. The
parameter identification problem is formulated as an optimization
task. The material constants are evaluated numerically using an
evolutionary algorithm procedure. The efficiency of the approach
and the quality of the results are discussed. The present work continues the previous studies of granular material structures [12]
and focuses on an effective methodology for parameter identification, enabling us to model and efficiently simulate the behaviour
of these materials.
2. Experimental results
The experimental investigation of the behaviour of granular
structures, placed in a tight space with underpressure, demanded
specific equipment. A special cylindrical granular specimen,

consisting of two rigid discs joined by a flexible plastomer

encapsulation (so-called envelope) has been prepared. The sample
was additionally equipped with a valve, making the connection to
the vacuum pump possible. Its purpose was to provide a previously
selected value of underpressure and maintaining its constant value
during the experiments. The scheme of the granular system is
illustrated in Fig. 1.
The applied polyvinyl chloride encapsulation (of 0.25 mm
thickness), surrounding the loose material, was tight and resistant
enough to withstand the frictional forces which occur during the
experiments and to prevent the perforation by rigid and rough
grains.
The plastic grains investigated in this study are made of
polystyrene and polypropylene, characterized respectively by
densities 1.05 g/cm3 and 0.91 g/cm3 , Youngs modulus in the
range of 3.03.5 GPa and 1.52.0 GPa, and elastic limit 25 MPa and
28 MPa.
The dimensions of the specimen were much larger than the
dimensions of a single grain.
The porosity of granular materials applied in experiments had
to be determined in order to characterize a grain packing and to
keep it constant. The notion of porosity of deposit N means the
fraction of the free volume, that is not packed by the granular
media, relative to the total space (a volume of the working space
of a tight samples envelope)
N =

Vw
V

V Vs
V

(1)

where Vw free intergranular space, Vs volume of the grains, V

volume of the container (cylindrical specimen).
The total volume of the grains Vs can be expressed by
Vs =

ms

(2)

with ms mass of granular materials, g density of granular

materials, and the porosity expression is given by
N =1

ms
V g

(3)

The purpose of determining the porosity of granular materials,

applied in laboratory tests, was to omit the influence of the nonuniform filling of the specimen, on the experimental results. The
constant value of the filling coefficient has been kept for all
experimental tests. Consequently, the constant value of the N
parameter (equal to 0.32) has been maintained.
Uniaxial tensile tests have been conducted at a constant,
strain independent strain rate, specially defined for a special
granular structure. They have been carried out on the universal
tensile testing machine MTS 809. The lowest measuring range has
been chosen. The meter circuit, due to advanced controlling and

2426

R. Zalewski, M. Pyrz / Engineering Structures 32 (2010) 24242431

70000

Table 1
Proof stresses for different strain rates.

= 1,1*10-2 s-1

Strain rate oi (in 1/s)

Proof stresses oi (in MPa)

1.1 10
1.1 104
6.2 106

3.9 102
8.6 103
7.9 103

stress [Pa]

50000

= 1,1*10-4 s-1
= 6,2*10-6 s-1
30000

10000

0.001

0.002

0.003

strain[.]
Fig. 2. Tension curves of granular specimen, obtained at various strain rates.

measuring electronics, provided automatic zero point correction

at the beginning of the measurement. Experimental data (force,
elongation, time) have been acquired in a numerical form.
To confirm the existence of viscous properties of granular
materials in special conditions, two kinds of laboratory tests have
been carried out: the tensile tests at various strain rates, and one
of the main rheological tests the stress relaxation (at room
temperature).
Two types of granular materials (polystyrene and polypropylene) will be investigated in this paper. Grains having approximate
cylindrical shapes (about 1 mm diameter and 2 mm length) have
been applied in all laboratory tests.
The applied underpressure values varied from the atmospheric
pressure (that equals approximately 0.1 MPa) to the vacuum (0.09
MPa).
Assumption of the homogeneity of grains used in experiments
gave the authors the possibility to establish the influence of a single
grain on the main physical properties of the structures. A detailed
description of experimental tests and typical experimental hardening curves for granular structures are presented in the former
works of the authors [1,2].
2.1. Strain rate selection
Selection of the strain rate, applied in experiments, has a
fundamental influence on the values of strength parameters
acquired from laboratory tests. To develop the proper value of
the quasi-static strain rate for granular structures, at least a few
uniaxial tensile tests have to be carried out. In such a case, it
is possible to determine a diagram, representing a yield limit,
obtained in each test, as a function of a chosen strain rate. The range
of applied strain rates ought to be wide enough to develop the
previously mentioned dependency with possibly high precision.
In the present work, the sensitivity of granular structures to
the strain rate range has been investigated for the propylene
samples at a constant internal underpressure of 0.06 MPa. On
the basis of these experimental results, the assumption about the
strain independent strain rate for all tested granular structures can
be made. This obvious simplification is proposed for this initial
approach to the experimental methods of granular structures.
In Fig. 2 three hardening curves, obtained over a wide
range of strain rates = 0.011, 0.00011, 0.0000062 1/s, have been
depicted.
One can notice that increasing the strain rate produces a
higher position of hardening curves and a greater elastic limit.
The granular conglomerates under consideration demonstrate

a behaviour similar to a viscoplastic material. It is worth

emphasizing that the difference of the material response on the
applied strain rates: = 0.00011 and 0.0000062 1/s is almost
negligible. The results of uniaxial tension experiments gave us
the idea about the strain rate independent behaviour for the
investigated granular materials.
The laboratory test proof stress values (stress producing very
small, permanent deformation equal to 0.2%) obtained for various
strain rates, are given in Table 1.
The stagnation phenomenon of viscous properties of granular
structures is clearly apparent in Fig. 3, where three separately
determined proof stresses 01 , 02 03 for each tensile test
have been presented as a function of strain rates. The subscript
s i corresponds to strain independent behaviour. Decreasing
the experimental strain rate below the conventional value si ,
depicted in Fig. 3, does not cause a considerable decrease of proof
stress values (0i ).
Taking into account the approximation of experimental points
in Fig. 3 by the exponential function = k e , (the physical
meaning of the k parameter value is discussed in the third section
of the paper), it was found that the strain rate = 1 103 1/s
is small enough to assume it as the quasi-static strain rate for
the granular structures. It corresponds to the elongation of the
granular specimen (Fig. 1) by 1l = 10 mm in a time t = 60 s.
Below this threshold value ( 01 , 02 ), a stagnation of the viscous
phenomenon of the granular samples is observable.
2.2. Underpressure influence
Results of uniaxial tests are presented in the form of stress and
strain graphs. The proof strain given by Eq. (4) and the conventional
stress measure, defined as the ratio of the loading force F to the
initial cross-sectional area of the specimen Eq. (5), have been
chosen

=
=

l l0
l
4F

d2

(4)
(5)

where l0 initial length of the specimen, l instantaneous length

of the sample, F and d are the tensile force and samples diameter
respectively.
It should be underlined that this simplified stress definition
does not correspond to the actual stress in the sample since
its cross-sectional area is continuously reduced during the test.
The diameter reduction process is particularly significant in the
final stage of the tensile test, when the necking occurs. In the
experiments carried out in this study, very small elongations of
tested specimens have been taken into account. In such cases, the
obtained curves and those reflecting the ratio of the actual crosssectional area at the narrowest surface of the specimen, are almost
overlapping.
The examples of stressstrain curves obtained for polypropylene (PP) and polystyrene (PS) grains at four different underpressures 0.02, 0.04, 0.06 and 0.08 MPa are given in Figs. 4 and 5.
The analysis of the uniaxial tensile test results of specimens,
filled up with different loose material, has revealed the evident
influence of this factor on the stressstrain curve character.

R. Zalewski, M. Pyrz / Engineering Structures 32 (2010) 24242431

2427

exp. data

03

interpolation
0,03

s-i = k

0,015

02
0,00001
(log.scale)

01

0,001
02

0,1
0

01

03

s-i

Fig. 3. Setting up of the strain independent strain rate for the granular structure.

PP; 0.08 MPa

4.00E+07

PP; 0.06 MPa

80000

PP
PP; 0.04 MPa
PP; 0.02 MPa

[Pa] 40000

PS
E [Pa] 2.00E+07

0
0

0.02

0.04

0.02

0.06

[.]
Fig. 4. Stressstrain curves for polypropylene specimens at the various ranges of
underpressure values.

0.04
0.06
0.08
underpressure [MPa]

0.1

Fig. 6. Experimental results of the Youngs modulus measurements for the wide
range of applied underpressures; polypropylene and polystyrene grains.

6.00E+04
PP; 0.08 MPa
PP; 0.06 MPa

80000

K [Pa]

PP; 0.04 MPa

[Pa]

4.00E+04
PP
PS

2.00E+04

PP; 0.02 MPa

40000

0
0

0.02

0.04

0.06

0.08

0.1

underpressure [MPa]
0
0

0.02

0.04

0.06

[.]
Fig. 5. Stressstrain curves for polystyrene specimens at the various ranges of
underpressure values.

The first conclusion that can be drawn is the dependence of the

stressstrain curves on applied underpressure: hardening curves
are located higher for samples with greater underpressure values.
Also, an increasing of fundamental mechanical properties of
tested specimens, such as Youngs modulus (E), tensile strength
or proof stress, have been observed while increasing the internal
underpressure.
Detailed investigation of all obtained results [3] revealed that
the variation of the previously mentioned materials parameters
as a function of underpressure is not linear. The upward trend of
the material mechanical properties, during generation of higher
internal underpressure values, has been noticed.
In Figs. 6 and 7, the influence of underpressure values on the
Youngs modulus and proof stresses of the granular structures have
been illustrated.

Fig. 7. Experimental results of proof stress measurements (k) for the wide range of
applied underpressures; polypropylene and polystyrene grains.

3. Constitutive model
A large number of viscoplastic constitutive models have been
proposed in the literature, e.g. [13,14], but they are mainly
focused on nonlinear behaviour of metals. In this paper, the
use of the classic Chaboche model is proposed to describe the
basic mechanical properties of granular structures submitted to
underpressure.
The detailed description of Chaboches model of viscoplastic
flow is presented, for example, in [15]. Assuming the HuberMises
yield condition, also an isothermal condition, it is expressed in the
following form
E I =

2
3

S0 X0
J (S0 X0 )

(6)

where E I inelastic strain tensor, p the accumulated strain

rate, S 0 the stress deviator and X 0 the kinematical hardening

2428

R. Zalewski, M. Pyrz / Engineering Structures 32 (2010) 24242431

function. The accumulated strain rate has the form

def

p =

E I : E I

 12

As a result, the final form of the stress function for the uniaxial
case may be rewritten as

(7)

J S0 X0 R k

p =

+ m1
,

( = 1, 0 1/s),

(8)

where 1/m = n viscous coefficient, k initial proof stress, K

plastic endurance function, R isotropic hardening function, and
J denotes the invariant. The h.i symbol (McCauleys brackets) is
defined as:
1

hxi =

(x + |x|) .

(9)

Chaboches model equations for the uniaxial tensile test are found
by taking the following matrix representations of the stress tensor
S, the stress deviator S0 and kinematical hardening functions X0

"

S=

0
0
0

0
0

0
0 ,
0

S0 =
0

0
,
1

(11)

X0 =
0

(10)

(12)

(13)

For the considered uniaxial case, the initial equation (6) becomes:

| X | R k

n

sgn( X ),

(14)

also
X =

2
3

a I c X | I |,

(15)

and
R = b (Q R) | I |

(16)

where a, c , b, Q are kinematical and isotropic hardening function

parameters, n = 1/m is viscous stress parameter.
After integration of hardening functions Eqs. (15) and (16), we
get:
X =v

2
3

a
c

(20)
(21)

In this study, the kinematical hardening will not be taken into

account in order to simplify the material description and to
minimize the number of material constants. This simplification is
also related to results, acquired previously from the cyclic loading
experiments of granular structures. The detailed discussion about
the influence of neglecting kinematical hardening in the modeling
of granular conglomerates is presented in [3]. The final form of
Chaboches model for inelastic deformations (with the kinematical
hardening neglected) may be expressed as




m
I
= k + Q 1 eb + K I .

(22)

The description of the material proposed by the model involves

six material parameters E , k, Q , b, K , m. They will be determined
numerically, after formulating the corresponding optimization
problem. The model given by Eq. (22) is the starting point for
the material constant identification process and at the same time
the basis for the further numerical simulation of the experimental
research.
4. Parameters identification using evolutionary algorithm
4.1. Identification as optimisation problem

J S0 X0 = | X |.


a
I

1 ec ,
3 c


I
R = Q 1 eb .
X =

where is a stress in a loading direction.

The simplified form of the computing invariant from Eq. (8), can
be written as

I =

(19)

Assuming that parameters p0 and X0 are zero, hardening functions

can be represented in the following form

that also could be expressed as

= X ( I , X0 , 0I ) + R(| I |) + k + K | I |m .


+ X0

2
3

a
c

R = Q 1 exp(b |p |) ,

exp c I 0I

(17)
(18)

where v = sgn( X ) = 1, X0 the initial value of the

kinematical hardening function and 0I initial value of the
inelastic strain function.

Viscoplastic constitutive models describing the behaviour

of materials involve numerous parameters. The experimental
determination of these material constants is very complicated
for the entire range of possible applications and would demand
sophisticated and expensive conditions. On the other hand, a
great precision of these values is necessary for carrying out a
realistic numerical simulation of the granular material behaviour.
The parameter identification procedure consists in making a set
of tests on specimens subjected to loading. During tests, the
values of displacements, forces and habitually (if possible) time
are recorded. The obtained experimental curves are used to
determine the values of material parameters so that the theoretical
description corresponds to experiments. The accurate establishing
of the constitutive model material constants is particularly
significant, when dynamic processes are investigated.
The identification problem can be formulated as an optimisation problem. In fact, we dispose of a set of experimental data,
that can be represented (in our study) in the form of stressstrain
curves obtained for different underpressures. From the other side,
we are able to simulate the material behaviour curves numerically
(according to Chaboches law) for a given set of parameter values. Thus, the material constants can be determined by comparing both approaches and by minimizing the differences between
them. Thus, the sum of errors between experimental and calculated curves at some points of the investigated domain can be taken
as objective functions. The problem is to minimize this value by an
appropriate choice of parameters values. This way the curve fitting
problem becomes the minimization problem.

R. Zalewski, M. Pyrz / Engineering Structures 32 (2010) 24242431

The optimisation problem corresponding to the parameter

identification of an experimental curve can be formulated as
follows:
determine N material parameters c1 , c2 , . . . , cN of a given
constitutive law so as to minimize the sum S of differences
between measured experimental data pexp and computed
results pnum at M given points of experimental result
S (c1 , . . . , cN ) =

M
X
 exp

p pnum (c1 , . . . , cN ) min .
i

(23)

i=1

In the present study the difference between the experimental and

the numerical curve will be expressed in terms of stress values
exp
exp
(i , inum respectively) taken at strain value i , corresponding
to the experimental points i (i = 1, 2, . . . , M ). In the proposed
approach, the least square deviation formulation is applied and the
corresponding objective function F can be represented as
F (c1 , . . . , cN ) =

M
X
 exp
2
i inum (c1 , . . . , cN ) min .

(24)

2429

When the termination condition is not satisfied do:

- creation of new solutions by recombining individuals of
the previous population (selection of elements for mating,
crossover and mutation);
- evaluation of new solutions;
- selection of a new population.
The evolutionary algorithm, developed for this study, uses the
floating point, natural representation of design variables. As a consequence, no encoding and decoding techniques are necessary. A
N-parameter constitutive law problem is represented directly by a
string of N material constants ci (i = 1, . . . , N). Each individual is
related to a curve computed for a set of material parameters, that
are generated by the evolutionary algorithm. Thus, the population contains several curves and the evaluation of the population
at each iterative step requires the numerical determination of several stressstrain relationships corresponding to different underpressure values. The following fitness definition is applied in this
study:
fitness(c1 , . . . , cN ) =

i=1

s
F (c1 , . . . , cN ) + 1

max .

(25)

M experimental points i (i , i ) have been uniformly located

over the considered strain domain.
The Chaboche constitutive model, applied to describe the
structural behaviour of granular media, involves N = 6 material
parameters. In order to avoid some fundamental problems
encountered during the process of parameter identification by
classical methods, the approach based on stochastic search and
evolutionary algorithms is developed to estimate the parameters
values.

The inverse of objective function F , formulated in Eq. (24), is used

because the fitness is habitually maximized by the EA, s is a scaling coefficient and the unity term in the denominator is included
to avoid the singularity of the resulting expression.
In order to evaluate the population of potential solutions, the
fitness of each individual is determined for a curve simulated
numerically and compared with the experimental data. The
evolutionary algorithm is developed in such a way that it generates
parameters ci (i = 1, . . . , N) within the range defined by the lower
and the upper limits and fixed by the user:

4.2. Application of evolutionary algorithm

cimin ci cimax

Evolutionary Algorithms (EA) are general purpose, stochastic

search methods inspired by natural evolution, heredity and
survival of the fittest [16,17]. They are naturally adapted to solve
unconstrained optimization problems and are able to deal with
difficult, large size, high cardinality and multi-modal problems.
They have been applied with success to a large variety of
optimization problems and are becoming a recognized solving
methodology in spite of its random character and a relatively high
computing time.
The EA manipulate an encoded representation of the problem
and emulate evolutionary theories using adapted genetic operators. The evolution is simulated using a set of biologically inspired
operators (like selection, crossover, mutation) and random parameters. In this process, better individuals have more chances to survive and to form next generations. New designs are usually better,
they replace members of old populations and this way the evolutionary method converges. At each step the algorithm processes a
fixed number of potential solutions (and not only one, as in classical optimization methods). This way, an efficient multi-directional
exploration of the design space and exploitation of promising regions is performed. The process continues for several iterations and
the solution is given by the best-found design, characterized by the
best fitness (usually maximal) a value that measures how good
is the proposition of the solution. The EA have been popularized by
Genetic Algorithms [18], which use standard binary string encoding of design variables. The evolution algorithms promote different data structures and corresponding adapted operators. All these
search procedures apply the following similar evolution scheme:

The evolutionary algorithms have been applied successfully by the

authors to the identification problems of polymers [19]. In this
study we continue this trend and we investigate the particular
behaviour of granular materials under tension.

exp

exp

Generation of the initial population of potential solutions

Evaluation of the initial population (determination of fitness
values)

i = 1, . . . , N .

(26)

5. Numerical results
The efficacy of the proposed method will be studied numerically for polypropylene (PP) and polystyrene (PS) grains, and experimental results presented in Figs. 4 and 5.
Six material parameters E , k, Q , b, K , m of Chaboches model
are determined numerically using the optimization formulation
described by Eq. (24) and the fitness function defined by Eq. (25). In
order to study the efficiency of the EA identification, the program
has been run independently 20 times and the average values have
also been investigated.
In the EA identification method, the stressstrain curves have
been simulated in the nonlinear strain range. The objective function in Eq. (24) has been formulated by taking M = 20 comparison points regularly disposed over the strain domain from
= 0.005 to = 0.035.
The Evolutionary Algorithm applied the population of 150
individuals, the single arithmetical crossover operator (with
pc = 0.60 probability) and the non-uniform mutation (with pm =
0.15 probability). The 150 generations have been investigated and
the selection procedure employed the tournament ranking using
the random pairs. Moreover, the elitist approach replaced the 6
worst individuals in the new generation by the best individuals
found in the previous generation. The Evolutionary Algorithm
approach is a stochastic search method, intensively making use
of random numbers and giving different propositions of solution
at the end of the iterative process. For this reason, several

2430

R. Zalewski, M. Pyrz / Engineering Structures 32 (2010) 24242431

0,08 [MPa]
90000

90000

0,06 [MPa]
70000
0,04 [MPa]

[Pa] 70000

[Pa] 50000
0,02 [MPa]
experimental results
numerical simulations

50000

30000
experimental results

10000

30000

0.005

0.01

0.015

0.02

0.025

0.03

numerical simulations

0.005

[.]

90000

[Pa] 70000

50000
experimental results
numerical simulations

0.005

0.01

0.015

0.015

0.02

0.025

0.03

[.]

Fig. 8. Results of 20 independent runs of EA identification of polystyrene grains

submitted to underpressure 0.08 MPa.

30000

0.01

0.02

0.025

0.03

[.]
Fig. 9. Result corresponding to average value over 20 runs for polystyrene
submitted to underpressure 0.08 MPa.

independent runs of the program have been carried out for each
example.
The identification process of Chaboches model material
constants will be studied in detail for underpressures 0.02, 0.04,
0.06, 0.08 MPa.
5.1. Polystyrene sample
The 6 parameters of Chaboches law applied to the description
of polystyrene grain behaviour have been searched within the
following, relatively large limits: 5 107 E 108 Pa, 104
k 105 Pa, 104 Q 105 Pa, 1 b 102 , 106 K
108 , 0.5 m 1.5. The lower and upper bounds were
chosen according to results of previous works [13] devoted to
an analytical determination of material constants for the same
constitutive law.
The first example has been carried out for the underpressure
0.08 MPa. In Fig. 8 the results of 20 runs of the EA identification
program are presented.
One can see that the applied stochastic method gives very
similar solutions within the studied strain domain 0.0050.035
(with slight differences at the extreme limits of the studied
strain domain). However, similar curves can be generated by
applying relatively different values of the six parameters. The curve
corresponding to average values over 20 independent runs of EA is
shown in Fig. 9.
It has been generated for E = 3.238 107 , k = 5.717 104 ,
Q = 3.402 104 , b = 51.77, K = 7.899 107 , m = 1.302. Similar
performances have been observed for subsequent underpressure
values. In Fig. 10 the best results from 20 independent runs of the

Fig. 10. Best identification result for polystyrene submitted to underpressures 0.02,
0.04, 0.06, 0.08 MPa, from 20 independent runs of the EA identification procedure.

EA identification program are presented for underpressures 0.08,

0.06, 0.04 and 0.02.
However, important differences between the values of identified parameters of four analyzed curves can be observed. For example, the best result (in terms of the fitness) for underpressure
0.08 MPa corresponds to E = 2.305 107 , k = 6.175 104 ,
Q = 3.189 104 , b = 50.67, K = 1.921 107 , m = 1.189.
The best result for underpressure 0.06 MPa is E = 1.141 107 ,
k = 5.541 104 , Q = 6.948 104 , b = 8.53, K = 9.804 107 ,
m = 1.477. The best set of parameters for underpressure 0.04 MPa
is given by E = 1.783 107 , k = 3.233 104 , Q = 2.577 104 ,
b = 40.18, K = 4.321 107 , m = 1.327. Finally, the best result for underpressure 0.02 MPa corresponds to E = 1.244 107 ,
k = 1.644 104 , Q = 4.701 104 , b = 11.17, K = 6.602 107 ,
m = 1.301.
One can see that the solutions of identification obtained by the
EA approach are very satisfying. The numerically simulated curves
fit their experimental equivalents correctly. The repeatability of
the results has been studied for 20 independent runs of the
program. However, relatively significant differences between the
values of identified parameters can be noticed, due to the large
range of parameters searched and the particularity of the EA
applying the real encoding of design variables. The additional
identification test has shown the natural tendency of diminishing
the standard deviation of identified parameter values when
smaller variation ranges of the parameters are explored. On the
other hand, we observe a relatively great difference between the
parameter values obtained for different underpressures.
5.2. Polypropylene samples
Now, the 6 parameters of Chaboches law describing the
polypropylene grains behaviour (Fig. 4) are searched within the
relatively large variation domains: 5 106 E 5 107 Pa,
103 k 104 Pa, 103 Q 5 104 Pa, 10 b 100,
105 K 5 106 , 0.1 m 3.0.
In Fig. 11 the results of 20 runs of the EA identification program
are presented for the case of underpressure 0.08 MPa.
As in the previous examples, the strain domain 0.0050.035 is
well approximated with some differences at the upper bound of
the simulated range. Similarly to the polystyrene grains example,
different values of identified parameters enable us to obtain
relatively similar numerical curves. In Fig. 12 the best results
from 20 independent runs of the EA identification program are
presented for underpressures 0.08, 0.06, 0.04 and 0.02 MPa.
As in the previous examples, considerable differences between
the values of identified parameters can be noticed for four analyzed
curves. The best result (in terms of the fitness) for underpressure

R. Zalewski, M. Pyrz / Engineering Structures 32 (2010) 24242431

80000

70000
[Pa] 60000

50000

experimental results
numerical simulations

40000
0

0.005

0.01

0.015

0.02

0.025

0.03

[.]
Fig. 11. Results of 20 independent runs of EA identification of polypropylene grains
submitted to underpressure 0.08 MPa.

0,08 [MPa]
80000
0,06 [MPa]
60000
0,04 [MPa]

[Pa]

0,02 [MPa]

40000

2431

The results of the obtained numeric simulations (Figs. 812) confirmed the adequacy of Chaboches law to describe effectively the
acquired experimental results.
The solutions obtained by EA based identification are very
satisfying for the applied criterion given by Eq. (24). The
curves simulated numerically follow correctly and precisely the
experimental graphs. Very good results have been obtained even
for relatively large ranges of parameter variation. The repeatability
of the results has been studied for several independent runs of
the identification program. The graphical comparison of the results
with experiments was always very satisfactory (Figs. 8 and 11).
However, it is worth noting that similar curves could also be
obtained for different sets of material parameters. The ratio of
standard deviation with respect to the average value did not
exceed 8%, with the exception of the parameter K and E (only in
the first example). The average value curve (Fig. 9) shows clearly
the robustness of the approach. The main, well known, drawback
of EA methods resides in the large number of potential solutions
that have to be investigated to obtain the final result. In the studied
numerical examples, the CPU time was small, taking a few seconds
on a PC computer.
The presented methodology can be easily adapted to other
experiments which have been carried out. It seems also to be
suitable for a different constitutive model and various kinds of
investigated problems (temperature and strain rate influence,
cycling loading, etc.). The example instigated numerically in this
paper encourages further work on numerical simulation and
modelling of smart granular structures.

experimental results

20000

numerical simulations

0.005

0.01

0.015

0.02

0.025

0.03

[.]
Fig. 12. Best identification result for polypropylene submitted to underpressures
0.02, 0.04, 0.06, 0.08 MPa, from 20 independent runs of the EA identification
procedure.

0.08 MPa corresponds this time to E = 2.858 107 , k = 4.728

104 , Q = 4.818 104 , b = 21.99, K = 1.218 107 , m = 1.033.
The best result for underpressure 0.06 MPa is E = 1.718 107 ,
k = 4.263 104 , Q = 3.083 104 , b = 32.76, K = 0.573 107 ,
m = 0.993. The best set of parameters for underpressure 0.04 MPa
is given by E = 1.546 107 , k = 3.100 104 , Q = 2.350 104 ,
b = 42.28, K = 0.747 107 , m = 1.138. Finally, the best result
for underpressure 0.02 MPa corresponds to E = 0.522 107 ,
k = 2.548 104 , Q = 2.714 104 , b = 23.18, K = 4.698 107 ,
m = 1.529.
6. Conclusions
Structures created on the basis of granular materials placed in
a hermetic envelope, and solidified by generating an underpressure, revealed very complex behaviour. Investigation of the uniaxial stress state in tensile tests is only the first step in the wide and
scrupulous research of granular concrete features. The experimental study of mechanical properties of investigated granular materials exposed its strong dependence on the underpressure value.
The experimental uniaxial tensile tests of structures filled up with
propylene and polystyrene showed also strong strain rate sensitivity. In this work, the use of Chaboches law has been proposed
to model the nonlinear behaviour of such granular media. The applied viscoplastic constitutive law requires the determination of
several material parameters. They have been determined numerically, using the evolutionary algorithm applied to the parameter
identification problem reformulated as an optimization problem.

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