ABSTRACT
Selecting an appropriate material model to generalize complex material behavior can be a difficult task, as there are many different formulations to choose from in commercial finite element (FE) programs. Four bulge inflation tests were performed on a PVC-coated polyester material with equivalently rated warp and fill strengths. Digital image correlation (DIC) was used to capture the full displacement field of the material at various pressure increments. An inverse analysis was set up to find material parameters in a FE model that matched the full displacement field of the experimental test. Cross validation was performed to investigate whether the physical behavior was better represented by an isotropic or orthotropic material model. This involved leaving out one of the four tests at a time. The orthotropic material model resulted in an average absolute deviation on the full displacement field that was 0.5% better than the isotropic model.
