Applications in Engineering Science 6 (2021) 100043

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Applications in Engineering Science

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apples

Inverse characterization of UHPC material based on Hopkinson bar test

Mohammad Reza Khosravani
Chair of Solid Mechanics, University of Siegen, Paul-Bonatz-Str. 9-11, Siegen 57068, Germany

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Keywords: Coupling scientific researches with engineering applications leads to significant increase in development of in-
Inverse method novative materials. Since time-consuming and expensive experimental tests are required for characterization of
Hopkinson bar materials under dynamic loading regime, utilizing inverse characterizations of material has been increased. In
Ultra-high performance concrete
this paper, an effective inverse methodology is proposed and it is utilized to determine dynamic behavior of
Dynamic material properties
cement-based composite material. This inverse procedure is based on the experimental test via split Hopkinson
Material characterization
pressure bar which is one of the most widely used devices in investigation of material response to high rate
loading. In the current study, Holmquist–Johnson–Cook constitutive model is used to present dynamic behavior
of ultra-high performance concrete that is a new generation of concrete and has higher strength compared to
traditional concrete. The reflected and transmitted waves obtained from the experiments are utilized as input in
the inverse procedure. Moreover, genetic algorithm with intergeneration projection is adopted as an inverse oper-
ator to determine inversed parameters. Based on the obtained results, the recommended characterization method
indicates effectiveness in the material characterization. The proposed methodology can accurately estimate the
desired parameters of material under the high strain rates.

1. Introduction a method was presented for characterization of material subjected to

There is no doubt that material development play a crucial role in hu-
man lives. Indeed, materials science is recognized as one pillar of devel-
opment of modern society and material characterization is an important
aspect of materials science. Currently there are various experimental sci-
entific techniques for the material characterizations. Thermal investiga-
tions (Kakar et al., 2019), fractographic analysis (Azevedo et al., 2014),
soft computing (Pichler et al., 2003) and mechanical testing (Khosravani
and Weinberg, 2017b) are examples of experimental methods in mate-
rial characterization. Due to some difficulties in the experimental tests,
utilizing non-experimental methods in material characterization has sig-
nificantly increased (Altenbach and Eremeyev, 2014; Chi et al., 2017;
Jin et al., 2002; Pucci et al., 2019). Different methods based on nu-
merical simulations and artificial intelligence techniques have been de-
veloped in mechanical engineering over the years (Anghelescu et al.,
2019; Bigoni et al., 2008; Chisari et al., 2015; Fraternali, 2007; Jordan
and Christov, 2005; Lefik and b. A. Schrefler, 2003; Nasiri et al., 2017;
Poltronieri et al., 2014). However, because of complexity in materials
and their behavior, some characterization methods need a large compu-
tation time.
Literature investigation indicated that inverse characterization of
different materials under dynamic loading have been performed over
the years (Kajberg and Lindkvist, 2004; Kajberg and Wikman, 2007;
Sedighi et al., 2010). For instance, in (Kajberg and Lindkvist, 2004)
E-mail address: mohammadreza.khosravani@uni-siegen.de
dynamic loading. To this aim, inverse modeling was performed which
includes finite element analysis of the tension test. It was reported es-
timated parameters were used to obtain true stress-strain curves. These
curves were validated by comparison with experimental results. Later,
in (Sedighi et al., 2011) electromagnetic ring expansion test results were
used to identify parameters of the material constitutive model. More in
deep, the experimental data were processed using a finite element opti-
mization procedure. By minimizing the standard deviation of differences
between calculated stress-strain curves and experimental results, an op-
timal set of material constants was obtained. Recently, in (Lattanzi et al.,
2020) inverse identification strategies were used to identify constitu-
tive parameters of material. To this aim, researchers used heterogeneous
full-field strain data and virtual fields method as an inverse technique.
Moreover, they used numerical data for validation. Considering com-
parison of identification results and the standard calibration process, it
is documented that proposed method is appropriate for identification
the material properties. In several studies high speed imaging was used
for material calibration under high rate of loading (Avachat and Zhouo,
2015; Chiappini et al., 2017; Parab et al., 2019; Rossi et al., 2008; Sasso
et al., 2015; Xing et al., 2018). For example, in (Sasso et al., 2015) a
fast and effective method was proposed to calibrate constitutive model
in characterization of an aluminum alloy. To this aim, the profile of the
test coupon was post-processed and deformation history was derived.
In experimental practice, a series of compression and tension tests was
conducted under high rate of loading. The obtained coefficients form
the proposed method, were compared to simulation results and a good
agreement was documented.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apples.2021.100043
Received 15 October 2020; Received in revised form 22 February 2021; Accepted 2 April 2021
Available online 15 April 2021
2666-4968/© 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
M.R. Khosravani
In work (Messineo et al., 2016), an inverse estimation methodol-
ogy was employed to characterize a layered material. In this context,
the researchers utilized inverse problem theory to identify mechanical
properties of a three layers material. Indeed, it was planned to use the
proposed method in order to estimate acoustic impedance and transit
time which are related to the mechanical properties such as density and
elastic modulus. In detail, error between experimental results and the
waveform was determined from an equivalent model. Based on the re-
sults, it was claimed that the proposed method estimated desired pa-
rameters accurately, with error within an acceptable range. Later, in
(Nightingale and Labrosse, 2018) an inverse finite element method is
utilized for characterization of a biomaterial. To this aim, the researches
developed an inverse methodology in MATLAB and used previous stress-
strain data in conjunction with finite element results, and optimize the
parameters. Based on the obtained results, efficiency of the proposed
method is documented. However, the inverse methodology can be used
for characterization of a wide range of materials.
Concrete is the most widely used building material in the world
(Randle et al., 2014), and its composition has been significantly mod-
ified throughout history. However, several engineering demands have
led to technical development of different concretes. Ultra-high perfor-
mance concrete (UHPC) is a relatively new generation of concrete which
exhibits preferable mechanical properties and unique responses un-
der various loading regimes compared to traditional concrete. Cement-
based materials like UHPC, asphalt concrete, and reinforced concrete
are complex in their response characterization (Krishnan and Rajagopal,
2003; Silva et al., 2019). Although numerous studies investigated me-
chanical properties of UHPC with different recipes, UHPC material char-
acterization is a current research topic in today’s research world (Tong
et al., 2020; Xie et al., 2019; Zhang et al., 2020). Indeed, several prop-
erties such as flexural behavior, blast resistance, and fatigue behavior
of UHPC have been studied in the past years. Since structural elements
made of UHPC experience dynamic loading during their lifetime, char-
acterization of this engineering cementitious material under this type
of loading have been performed in previous studies (Astarlioglu and
Krauthammer, 2014; Hassan and Wille, 2018; Khosravani et al., 2019;
Wu et al., 2017). Here, the term ”dynamic loading” refers to ”high strain
rate”. Since behavior of brittle composites and concrete-like materials
are complicated by a combination of brittleness and micro fracture,
accurate experimental test is required to obtain response of material
under dynamic loading (Bahei-El-Din and Zikry, 2003; Pearson et al.,
2007). For this loading scenario, split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB)
has been widely used for various materials including: cement-based ma-
terials (Khosravani et al., 2018; Li et al., 2020), biomedical materials
(Khosravani, 2019; Trexler et al., 2011), metals (Galvez et al., 2009;
Mirone et al., 2019b), composites (Kumar and Naik, 2018; Periasamy
and Tippur, 2012), adhesively bonded joints (He and Ge, 2017; Sassi
et al., 2018), and ceramics (Li et al., 2015; Luan et al., 2018). The test
via SHPB is the popular method to investigate the mechanical properties
of materials at medium and high strain rates (Khosravani and Weinberg,
2017a). Although Hopkinson bars have been employed in numerous re-
searches, this experimental practice is a challenging task regarding to
the impedance properties and the difficulty to achieve a dynamic equi-
librium. Literature investigations indicated that due to some uncertain-
ties in measured stress in the experimental tests, material parameters are
totally different in various experimental data. However, owing to inex-
pensive computing resources, applications of inverse characterization of
materials by different methods have been increased.
The inverse technique in estimation of material parameters make
a relationship between experimental findings and material parameters.
The present paper aims to clarify the importance of the inverse method-
ology in regards to characterization of UHPC material. It is a step to-
wards for better prediction of UHPC behavior under dynamic loading
by finding a linkage between simulation and experimental practice for
inverse characterization of material. In this study, inverse method is em-
ployed to determine parameters of UHPC under high strain rate loading.
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Applications in Engineering Science 6 (2021) 100043
In the proposed method, reflected and transmitted waves obtained from
the SHPB test are used as input, and the optimum set of material pa-
rameters is determined by optimization procedure. The rest of this pa-
per is structured as follows: next section describes material properties
identification. In Section 3 forward problem and sensitivity analysis are
outlined. The obtained results are mentioned in Section 4. Finally, the
main conclusions are presented in Section 5.
2. Material properties identification
2.1. Inverse material characterization
When material parameters are unknown, and experimental tests can
be performed to determine behavior of material, solving the equations
can describe the material parameters. Due to this, the mathematical
procedure is called inverse solution of material characterization. In the
inverse material characterization, it is needed to utilize experimental
results such as force, displacement, and strain. Moreover, integrated ap-
proaches must be used and experimental results should be combined
with numerical methods in order to recover the parameters. With this
procedure the parameters can be recovered by minimizing an objective
function. As the finite element analysis usually is used for the numerical
models, attempts should be done to reduce computational cost (Schmidt
et al., 2015). In (Grediac et al., 2002) and (Pierron et al., 2007), al-
ternative approaches have been developed to improve computational
efficiency of material characterization, but as utilizing finite element
simulation is avoided, some disadvantages are observed.
In this work, a model has been considered which is widely used
in analysis of problem under dynamic loading regime. The Holmquist–
Johnson–Cook (HJC) constitutive model (Holmquist et al., 1993) is one
of the most popular material models which can be used for materials un-
der dynamic loading and it has been used in various researches (Brown
et al., 2017; Hou et al., 2018). Previous successful researches (Fing and
Zhang, 2013; Kristoffersen et al., 2019; Mirone et al., 2019a; Qu et al.,
2016) which used HJC model to study different concrete materials un-
der high strain rates, confirmed that the HJC model is a suitable method
in the numerical study of UHPC material under test via SHPB. In detail,
the HJC model is connected by three different parts: power hardening
law is shown by the first multiplicative term. This part is utilized to
describe metallic hardening functions in quasi-static modeling contexts.
The second term indicates the natural logarithmic dependence on the
dimensionless equivalent plastic strain rate. The last term referred to
the power dependence on the homologous temperature. In this term,
the current temperature is considered as the reference temperature
In the present study, HJC constitutive model is utilized, and the ma-
terial characterization is performed in four steps as follows: (a) A series
of experimental tests via SHPB are conducted on the UHPC specimens.
(b) The reflected and transmitted waves obtained from experimental
practices are saved and used as input in the inverse procedure. (c) A
finite element model of the dynamic load on UHPC is implemented in
ABAQUS software, and a set of trial material parameters is utilized. The
simulation results are obtained with respect to the assumed parame-
ters. (d) The problem of UHPC parameter identification is transformed
for an optimization, where the deviations of responses of experimental
finding and numerical observation are reduced. In order to solve the
optimization problem, the genetic algorithm (GA) with intergeneration
projection is applied, and parameter sensitivity analysis is performed.
In Fig. 1 this material characterization is schematically illustrated.
In engineering analysis, numerical modeling as an alternative to ex-
perimental investigation have been widely used, but usually there are
differences between the experimental finding and numerical results. In
this regard, optimization process can be employed to minimize the de-
viations of results achieved by experiments and finite element simula-
tions. The objective function of optimization problem can be expressed
M.R. Khosravani Applications in Engineering Science 6 (2021) 100043

Input Fig. 1. Schematic description of computa-

tional procedure for UHPC characterization
based on SHPB test.

I R T

Experimental findings Output

Trial Genetic Optimum

parameters Algorithm parameters

Simulation results

Fig. 2. A schematic of split Hopkinson pressure bar (Khosravani, 2018).

as follows: Moreover, a data acquisition system is utilized to record the experimen-

𝑛
∑ tal data. The specimen must be placed between the bars, and the impact
exp
𝑓 (𝑥) = ∥ 𝜎𝑖 − 𝜎𝑖sim (𝑥) ∥2 (1) of the striker on the incident bar induces a longitudinal compressive
𝑖=1 wave which travels through the incident bar. Some part of the pulse
exp
where 𝑓 (𝑥) is an estimated function which represents sum of errors, 𝜎𝑖 propagates on the transmission bar and the rest back to the incident bar
and 𝜎𝑖sim refer to obtained response of materials measured in experiment at the interface. A schematic of SHPB is illustrated in Fig. 2.
and simulation, respectively. Moreover, 𝑥 and 𝑛 are an inversed param- It should be noted that, experiment via SHPB is based on several
eter vector and number of data point, respectively. It shows summation assumption. It is assumed that the bars are linear, isotropic and free
over each data point in the time history of the strain signals. of wave dispersion effects during loading. Moreover, the specimen is
assumed to be in dynamic force equilibrium, with equal force imposed
2.2. Experimental test via SHPB at both specimen-bar interfaces. The stress (𝜎), strain (𝜀) and strain rate
(𝜀̇ ) on the specimen as a function of time are respectively calculated by:
The non-linear behavior of UHPC material until the failure is a com-
𝐸𝐴𝑏
plicated theme, especially in high strain rates. In this regard, SHPB is the 𝜎(𝑡) = 𝜀 (𝑡) (2)
most widely used method to run experiments under high rate of loading 𝐴𝑠 𝑇
(e.g., tensile, compressive and torsional dynamic loads). In (Khosravani 𝑡
2𝑐0
and Weinberg, 2018) a comprehensive review on usage of SHPB in char- 𝜖(𝑡) = 𝜀 (𝑡)𝑑𝑡 (3)
𝑙𝑠 ∫0 𝑅
acterization of cementitious materials under dynamic loading regime
is presented. A traditional SHPB consists of a gas gun, a striker, inci- 2𝑐0
𝜀̇ (𝑡) = 𝜀 (𝑡) (4)
dent bar, transmission bar, and a damper at the end of transmission bar. 𝑙𝑠 𝑅

3
M.R. Khosravani
where 𝐴𝑏 and 𝐴𝑠 are the cross-sectional area of the bar and the specimen,
respectively. Also, 𝐸, 𝑙𝑠 and 𝑐0 show elastic modulus, specimen length
and the wave speed in the bar, respectively. The subscripts 𝑇 and 𝑅
represent transmitted and reflected waves.
In the current study, dynamic Brazilian tests on UHPC circular spec-
imens are performed. In detail, two aluminum bars with diameter of
20 mm and length of 1800 mm are used as incident and transmission
bar. The impact of an aluminum striker with length of 100 mm gener-
ates a pulse that propagates through the bars. The examined specimens
with a thickness of 15 mm and diameter of 50 mm are constructed by
filling the material into the designed mold. In Fig. 3 a circular UHPC
specimen located between the bars before impact test on SHPB is illus-
trated.
In the experimental practice, the strain is measured by means of
strain gauges placed in the middle of the incident and transmission bars
4
Applications in Engineering Science 6 (2021) 100043
Fig. 3. A circular UHPC specimen under dynamic
loading conditions via SHPB.
Fig. 4. A typical strain history of a test via SHPB.
with a resistance of 120.0±0.1Ω and a sensitivity coefficient of 2.14±1%.
Here, experiments were conducted under different velocities of striker
which led to strain rates of 30 s−1 and 95 s−1 . In a well-defined strain
rate, the incident pulse reaches to its maximum with a long rise time. In
several studies, researchers suggested utilizing pulse shaper in st espe-
cially for brittle materials Hopkinson bar test (Frew et al., 2002; Pang
et al., 2019; Weinberg et al., 2018). It is noteworthy that, we have used
paper and aluminum paper as pulse shaper. The pulse shaper with a
thickness of 0.8 mm was attached to the aluminum incident bar. The
pulse shaper increased the incident stress wave rising time, which has
led to an increase in the loading time. In Fig. 4 the full strain history of
test under strain rate of 95 s−1 without using pulse shaper is depicted.
Dynamic tensile strength and dynamic elastic modulus of material can
be obtained by dynamic Brazilian test via SHPB. Mechanical properties
such as impact strength and tensile resistance under dynamic loading
M.R. Khosravani Applications in Engineering Science 6 (2021) 100043

Fig. 5. Typical pictures of a Brazilian specimen during its failure process.

Fig. 6. Fractured UHPC circular specimens.

Fig. 7. Stress-strain curve (left), and stress-time of examined UHPC specimen under strain rate of 30 s−1 (right).

are hard to obtain under reproducible conditions. In the current study,
comparison of the response curves at each strain rate, confirmed that
the conducted tests indicated reproducible results.
The experimental observations showed that the crack is initiated in
the center of the specimen and growth along the loading diameter direc-
tion until the specimen was split into two halves. Brazilian test is valid
only when crack initiated at the center of the specimen (Rastiello et al.,
2018). In the current study, this issue is confirmed by analysis of the
movies recorded by a high speed camera. Fig. 5 shows crack propaga-
tion in a Brazilian specimen at different instants of time.
After crack initiation in center of the specimen, it propagates along
the loading diameter and towards the two ends till final fracture. In
Fig. 6 fractured specimens are illustrated. Later, crack initiation and its
propagation are illustrated in simulation results (see Fig. 9).
In Fig. 7 stress-strain curve and stress versus time history are illus-
trated. Both curves are obtained from the experiment under strain rate
of 30 s−1 . It is worthwhile to note that reproducible results were ob-
tained from the tests, as the cracks were observed at the same position
in every test.
2.3. Numerical simulations
For numerical simulations, the commercial finite element software
ABAQUS was used and explicit numerical method was utilized for as it
can effectively handle nonlinear behavior. In this study, the 3D finite
element model includes the incident bar, circular specimen and trans-
mission bar was established. As in experimental test, the striker is only
utilized to generate stress wave, it is not necessary to model this part
in the numerical simulation. In this regard, a stress wave is imposed
on finite element modeling of the incident bar. It should be noted that
the stress wave at the middle of the incident bar is considered as the
reference incident waveform in the finite element simulation.
The geometries of the bars and specimen are the same as experimen-
tal tests. In order to reduce computation cost, elements with different

5
M.R. Khosravani Applications in Engineering Science 6 (2021) 100043

Fig. 8. Finite element model of the specimen placed

between the bars.

sizes were used for bars and specimen. For the incident and transmitted Table 1
bars density of 2700 kg/m3 and elastic modulus of 68.9 GPa are con- Experimental and numerical results of studied the circular UHPC specimens.
sidered. It should be mentioned that material properties and boundary Specimen No. 𝐹max [kN] 𝜎exp [MPa] 𝜎sim [MPa]
conditions were kept same as experimental tests. In this simulation, the
1 23.1 19.61 21.18
FE model has a total of 82600 hexahedral elements (C3D8R ABAQUS
2 23.8 20.21 18.07
type). Fig. 8 shows FE model of the incident and transmitted bars and 3 23.2 19.71 20.12
circular specimen. 4 22.7 19.27 21.76
In the test via SHPB, the dynamic equilibrium in the specimen should 5 23.1 19.61 20.31
6 22.8 19.63 18.92
be achieved. Since the dynamic equilibrium is an important issue, we
7 22.6 19.19 19.81
have checked this equilibrium in numerical simulation as well. In order 8 23.2 19.71 21.45
to check equilibrium in the UHPC specimen throughout the numerical 9 23.8 20.21 20.72
simulation, we recorded the histories of the resultant forces at both ends 10 22.6 19.19 19.86
of the specimen. In the experimental practice, the forces on either side Avg. 23.09±0.4 19.63 ±0.43 20.22 ±0.52
of the specimen is calculated by:
Table 2
𝐹1 = 𝐸 𝐴𝑏 (𝜀𝐼 + 𝜀𝑅 ) and 𝐹2 = 𝐸 𝐴𝑏 𝜀𝑇 (5)
Dimensions and units of the HJC parameters.
where the indices 1 and 2 refer the specimen-incident bar interface 𝐴: stress [MPa] 𝑁: non-dimensional 𝜀̇ : strain rate [s−1 ]
andthe specimen-transmission bar interface, respectively. There are dif- 𝐵: stress [MPa] 𝐶: non-dimensional 𝑃 : pressure [GPa]
ferent evaluation methods to check equilibrium. For instance, if 𝐹1 = 𝐹2
the specimens is in equilibrium. Moreover, a stress ratio of 𝜎𝑇 ∕𝜎𝐼 + 𝜎𝑅
indicates equilibrium when it approaches one. In the current study, the
high strain rate:
recorded forces at the front and rear specimen-bar interface proved that
[ ][ ]
dynamic equilibrium has been achieved in performed numerical simu- 𝜎 ∗ = 𝐴(1 − 𝐷) + 𝐵𝑃 ∗𝑁 1 + 𝐶 𝑙𝑛 (𝜀̇∗ ) (6)
lations. Fig. 9 shows crack propagation in 2D model at three instances.
where 𝜎 ∗ = 𝜎∕𝑓𝑐 and 𝑃 ∗ = 𝑃 ∕𝑓𝑐 are the normalized equivalent stress
As can be seen, there are similar number of elements at the both ends of
and the normalized pressure, respectively. Also, 𝑓𝑐 and 𝜎 are compres-
crack. Moreover, the contour shows similar force at the front and rear
sive strength and actual equivalent stress, respectively. As shown in
specimen-bar interface.
Eq. (6), the HJC model has several constants, 𝐴, 𝐵, and 𝐶 are cohe-
As already mentioned, Brazilian experiment is a valid test only when
sive strength coefficient, pressure coefficient, and strain rate coefficient,
start-split location is at the center of the specimen. As can be seen in
respectively. These material constants and 𝑁 are determined by fitting
Fig. 9, crack is initiated at the center of the specimens and it propagates
the model to experimental data. Moreover, 𝐷 denotes a scalar damage
along the loading directio until failure.
variable. In the current study, we attempt to find HJC parameters: 𝐴,
In Table 1 experimental and numerical results are summarized. In
𝐵, 𝑁 and 𝐶. In Table 2, dimensions and units of the parameters are
the numerical simulation of the incident and transmitted bars, a linear
reported. In HJC model, an elastic-viscoplastic constitutive model con-
elastic material constitutive model was utilized.
tains (a) strength criterion, (b) damage evolution and (c) equation of
state (Holmquist et al., 1993). In this regard, there are parameters that
3. Forward problem and sensitivity analysis some of them can be determined by the experiments and the rest must
be obtained in indirect way.
The HJC model, was developed to describe behavior of cement-based • HJC background
material under high strain rates, large strains, and high pressures. Since
effect of strain rate and compression damage are synthetically consid- In computational constitutive models for materials, Johnson, Cook,
ered in this model, it can describe the dynamic behavior of cement- and Holmquist contributed to research on several materials over the
based materials under the conditions of high strain rates very well. The years. Dynamic constitutive models contain complicated parameters of
following equation illustrates a mathematical interpretation of the HJC physical properties and some sensitive coefficients. Here, aforemen-
model which can be used for concrete subjected to high pressure and tioned criteria are briefly presented.

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M.R. Khosravani Applications in Engineering Science 6 (2021) 100043

Fig. 9. Simulated fracture process in UHPC

specimen under Brazilian test.

Fig. 10. The material model of the HJC concrete, equivalent strength model (left), damage failure model (right).

- Strength criterion
The strength equation is expressed in Eq. (6), where 𝜎 ∗ ≤ 𝑆max is
dimensionless equivalent stress, and 𝑆max is the maximum dimensionless
strength of concrete material.
- Damage evolution
In HJC model, damage evolution is expressed as:
∑ Δ𝜀𝑝 + Δ𝜇𝑝
𝐷= (7)
𝜀𝑓𝑝 + 𝜇𝑃𝑓

where Δ𝜀𝑝 and Δ𝜇𝑝 are increments of equivalent plastic strain and plas-
tic volumetric strain, respectively. 𝐷 is the damage degree (0≤D≤1).
Moreover, 𝜀𝑓𝑝 and 𝜇𝑃𝑓 are equivalent plastic strain and plastic volumet-
ric strain under normal pressure. Their summation is the total plastic
strain under a constant pressure until fracture.

𝜀𝑓𝑝 + 𝜇𝑃𝑓 = 𝐷1 (𝑃 ∗ + 𝑇 ∗ )𝐷2 ≥ 𝐸𝐹 𝑀 𝐼 𝑁 (8)

where 𝐷1 and 𝐷2 are the constants of damage related to the examined

material, and 𝐸𝐹 𝑀 𝐼 𝑁 is a material constant which is utilized to sup-
ports fracture from weak tensile waves. Moreover, 𝑇 ∗ is the normalized
tensile strength, 𝑇 ∗ = 𝑇 ∕𝑓𝑐 and 𝑇 is the maximum tensile strength of
material. As it shown in Eq. (7) damage is described by the accumula-
tion of equivalent plastic strain and plastic volumetric strain. In Fig. 10
an original HJC material model strength and also damage model for
cement-based material are illustrated.
- Equation of state
In HJC model, the relationship between volume strain and hydro-
static pressure of material is described by the three regions. Fig. 11
shows hydrostatic pressure and volumetric strain curve. The first region
(OA) is linear elastic. The second area (AB) is transitional region and
the air voids of in material should be gradually compressed. The last
region (BC) is compact region and the material should transfer to com-
pact material without air voids, damaged and then begins to produce
destructive cracks (Luo, 2019). 𝜇𝑐𝑟𝑢𝑠ℎ and 𝜇𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑘 are volumetric strain at
the elastic limit 𝑃𝑐𝑟𝑢𝑠ℎ and at the compacting pressure 𝑃𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑘 , respectively.
𝑃 = 𝐾1 𝜇 + 𝐾2 𝜇 2 + 𝐾3 𝜇 3 (9)
Fig. 11. Hydrostatic pressure vs. volumetric strain.
where 𝜇 is the modified volumetric strain: 𝜇 = (𝜇 − 𝜇1 )∕(1 + 𝜇1 ), and 𝜇1
is volume strain. Also, 𝐾1 , 𝐾2 and 𝐾3 are material constants.
• HJC for characterization of UHPC
In the current study, UHPC specimens were tested under strain rate
of 30 s−1 and 95 s−1 , and the hydrostatic pressure volume of material
cannot reach the third region. However, the HJC model is totally empir-
ical, a series of different tests are needed to determine HJC parameters.
As some parameters have negligible effect on the numerical simulation
of SHPB, recommended values in the literature references for the most
similar UHPC mixture can be used.
In the inverse method of parameter identification, sensitivity of the
input vector to the output vector can reduce ill-posedness. It is crucial to
consider the influence of the inversed parameters on the responses. This
can be conducted via parameter sensitivity analysis based on numerical
simulation. In (Morris, 1991) an approach is proposed to compute the

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M.R. Khosravani Applications in Engineering Science 6 (2021) 100043

Fig. 12. Sensitivity analysis for unknown parameters based on SHPB simulation.

sensitivity. It is an effective method which can be used to determine Table 3

sensitivity of the result with respect to the parameters. In the current
study, the sensitivity analysis is performed in numerical computation at
a strain rate of 95 s−1 . In this regard, the initial values of the inversed pa-
rameters are set and for sensitivity analysis another two values are given
for each parameter. Afterward, the unknown parameters 𝐴, 𝐵, 𝑁 and 𝐶
are varied independently in the numerical simulations. In this regard,
we used a small MATLAB code and investigated which input variable
is contributing significantly to the output. Based on this investigation,
exp
we documented that value of stress (𝜎𝑖 ) has the most important influ-
ence on the value of output parameters. In Fig. 12 results of sensitivity
analysis for two parameters 𝐴 and 𝐵 are illustrated.
As can be seen the reflected and transmitted wave responses are
different and depend on the parameter significantly. It means, the re-
sponses are significantly sensitive to the mentioned three parameters
which are here considered as inversed parameters.
In the current study, genetic algorithm with intergeneration projec-
tion is employed to minimize the objective function and reduce the re-
quired number of forward analyses. Genetic algorithm with intergenera-
tion projection is a robust algorithm which can find the global optimum
instead of the local optimum for a provided initial range (Liu et al.,
2002; Yang and Liu, 2010). The details of parameter identification and
inverse procedure are illustrated in Fig. 13.
It should be pointed out that, for the first guess of the parameters,
results of our experimental tests and also researches on similar UHPC
mixture were used and fitting process was performed. As an example, for
strain rate coefficient, slops of the linear fits through the data sets were
used. Indeed, parameters were estimated from the slope and intercept
of the fitted curves.
4. Results
The initial range of the inversed parameters (𝐴, 𝐵, 𝑁 and 𝐶) can
be set via combining experimental results and the parameter sensitivity
Dimensions and possible units of the HJC parameters.
Inversed parameters Initial range Inversed results
A [0.1, 1.8] 0.821
B [0.4, 2.0] 1.583
N [0.1, 1.5] 0.725
C [0.001, 0.009] 0.007
analysis. The reflected and transmitted waves of experimental practice
are used as input of the inverse method. Moreover, in the reflected and
transmitted waves a series of samples points are considered where the
response is strongly sensitive to the inversed parameters. These points
are utilized to make the objective function. The inversed procedure
(Fig. 13) is used to determine parameters. The estimated values of ex-
amined UHPC parameters are presented in Table 3. The obtained results
indicated that the proposed inverse method for parameter identification
of UHPC material recommended values within initial range.
In Fig. 14 experimental results and numerical findings which are cali-
brated by the described procedure are shown. These curves are achieved
under strain rate of 95 s−1 . It is noteworthy that experimental input
pulses are used as input strain pulse in the finite element analysis which
has led to a good agreement between experimental results and com-
putational findings. It confirmed reliability of this inverse method in
parameter estimation. It is assumed that the experimental results repre-
sent the real behavior of the material under test with specific measuring
errors. Therefore, usually there is a difference between experimental
results and numerical findings. Dynamic Increase Factor (DIF) in the
obtained result for a specific strain rate can be compared to the tests
under different strain rates (for similar UHPC mixtures). DIF is ratio of
the dynamic value to the quasi-static value, which is widely used for
behavior analysis of cement-based material under high rate of loading.
For further evaluation of accuracy and precision of the proposed
method, here R-square coefficient (𝑅2 ) is calculated. 𝑅2 is the absolute

Table 4
HJC constitutive model parameters of studied UHPC.

Parameters Parameters

Density 𝜌 [kg/m ]
3
2382.7 Crushing pressure [MPa] 45.8
Shear modulus 𝐺 [GPa] 17.28 Crushing volumetric strain 2.3 × 10−3
Normalized cohesive strength 𝐴 0.821 Locking pressure [MPa] 7.8 × 102
Normalized pressure hardening 𝐵 1.583 Locking volumetric strain 0.1
Strain rate coefficient 𝐶 0.007 Damage constant 𝐷1 0.04
Pressure hardening exponent 𝑁 0.725 Damage constant 𝐷2 1
Compressive strength 𝑓𝑐 [MPa] 159.6 Pressure constant 𝐾1 [MPa] 8.7 × 104
Tensile hydrostatic pressure 𝑇 [MPa] 8.4 Pressure constant 𝐾2 [GPa] −1.5 × 105
Normalized maximum strength 𝑆max 7 Pressure constant 𝐾3 [GPa] 2.1 × 105

8
M.R. Khosravani Applications in Engineering Science 6 (2021) 100043

Fig. 13. Flowchart of the technique used in this study.

Fig. 14. Experimental results and numerical simula-

tion data (𝜀̇ =95 s−1 ).

fraction of variance of a parameter. Indeed, it denoted reliability of the noted that 𝜎predict and 𝜎experiment are assumed to be equal to 𝜎𝑖sim and
achieved outcomes that replicated by the experiment. The value of 𝑅2 exp
𝜎𝑖 , respectively. According to the obtained values form experimental
is in the range of 0 to 1. The estimated value by the proposed method tests and proposed method under strain rate of 95 s−1 we have obtained
is nearer to the experimental result when 𝑅2 is closer to 1. It can be 𝑅2 =0.8962 which further indicates capability of the inverse method in
determined by: material characterization.
∑𝑁 Here, we present the parameter values of the HJC constitutive model
𝑖=1 (𝜎predict − 𝜎experiment )
2
for examined UHPC material. These values of the inversed parameters 𝐴,
𝑅2 = 1 − ∑𝑁 (10)
𝐵, 𝑁 and 𝐶 are achieved in the current study, and other parameters have
𝑖=1 (𝜎predict )
2
been documented from literature references (Kimberley and Lamberson,
where 𝑁 is the number of test. Moreover, 𝜎predict and 𝜎experiment are 2018). The corresponding model parameters for UHPC specimen are
the predicted value and experimental result, respectively. It should be presented in Table 4.

9
M.R. Khosravani
It should be noted that different experimental practices (e.g., uniaxial
compression, cyclic loading, splitting and triaxial compression tests) are
needed to obtain the values presented in Table 4. For instance, static
uniaxial compressive test is needed to obtain compressive strength (𝑓𝑐 ).
5. Conclusion
Considering increase in applications of UHPC material in different
engineering structures, characterization of this material and its variants
is required. UHPC opens new opportunities not only for the architecture
in structures with complex shapes and customized texture, but also fa-
cilitates the construction of engineering structures. For structures which
experience impact, deep information about fast deformation, impact and
shock propagation is of increasing importance to optimize the engineer-
ing design. In this respect, experiments based on Hopkinson bar have
been performed over the years. Since conducting an experiment could
be difficult and expensive to obtaining reliable result, methods of in-
verse characterization of mechanical properties of materials seems to
be interesting alternative methods.
In this research, we have proposed an inverse method and utilized
the HJC constitutive model in calculation of the relationships during de-
formation under high strain rate. A series of Brazilian tests on circular
UHPC specimens are performed. The reflected and transmitted waves
are recorded via strain guages, and used as input in the system. More-
over, a FE model was established in ABAQUS. Indeed, this model simu-
lated UHPC under dynamic loading via Hopkinson bar which was used
as the forward solver to conduct numerical computations. Genetic algo-
rithm with intergeneration projection was adopted as inverse operator
in order to solve the optimization problem.
In the current research, the obtained values of the HJC constitutive
model were used in the numerical model, and a good agreement be-
tween experimental and numerical results was observed. This proves
possibility of using HJC parameter values in simulation of UHPC under
dynamic loading via Hopkinson bar. The recorded results proved that
the value of stress has the most important effect on the output parame-
ters. This is related to the strain rate dependency of UHPC material, as
this material shows higher compressive strength and tensile strength at
high strain rate loading. It is worth mentioning that in evaluation of the
results, not only the experimental and numerical curves are compared,
but also 𝑅-square coefficient is calculated which indicates accuracy of
the inverse method in material characterization. In the situation where
complicated dynamic experimental results are lacking for the constitu-
tive model, the proposed inverse method can be considered as a feasible
choice for determining the parameters. The reported results showed a
great significance application of the inverse methodology in material
characterization. Based on DIF, results of different strain rates for simi-
lar UHPC mixture can be compared.
Declaration of Competing Interest
None.
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