On the linearization of identifying the stored energy function of a hyperelastic material from full knowledge of the displacement field

We compute a local linearization for the nonlinear, inverse problem of identifying the stored energy function of a hyperelastic material from the full knowledge of the displacement field. The displacement field is described as a solution of the nonlinear, dynamic, elastic wave equation, where the first Piola–Kirchhoff stress tensor is given as the gradient of the stored energy function. We assume that we have a dictionary at hand such that the energy function is given as a conic combination of the dictionary's elements. In that sense, the mathematical model of the direct problem is the nonlinear operator that maps the vector of expansion coefficients to the solution of the hyperelastic wave equation. In this article, we summarize some continuity results for this operator and deduce its Fréchet derivative as well as the adjoint of this derivative. Because the stored energy function encodes mechanical properties of the underlying, hyperelastic material, the considered inverse problem is of highest interest for structural health monitoring systems where defects are detected from boundary measurements of the displacement field. For solving the inverse problem iteratively by the Landweber method or Newton‐type methods, the knowledge of the Fréchet derivative and its adjoint is of utmost importance. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.