We propose a new approach for unsupervised learning of hyperelastic constitutive laws with physics-consistent deep neural networks. In contrast to supervised learning, which assumes the availability of stress–strain pairs, the approach only uses realistically measurable full-field displacement and global reaction force data, thus it lies within the scope of our recent framework for Efficient Unsupervised Constitutive Law Identification and Discovery (EUCLID) and we denote it as NN-EUCLID. The absence of stress labels is compensated for by leveraging a physics-motivated loss function based on the conservation of linear momentum to guide the learning process. The constitutive model is based on input-convex neural networks, which are capable of learning a function that is convex with respect to its inputs. By employing a specially designed neural network architecture, multiple physical and thermodynamic constraints for hyperelastic constitutive laws, such as material frame indifference, material stability, and stress-free reference configuration are automatically satisfied. We demonstrate the ability of the approach to accurately learn several hidden isotropic and anisotropic hyperelastic constitutive laws – including e.g., Mooney–Rivlin, Arruda–Boyce, Ogden, and Holzapfel models – without using stress data. For anisotropic hyperelasticity, the unknown anisotropic fiber directions are automatically discovered jointly with the constitutive model. The neural network-based constitutive models show good generalization capability beyond the strain states observed during training and are readily deployable in a general finite element framework for simulating complex mechanical boundary value problems with good accuracy.

Within the scope of our recent approach for Efficient Unsupervised Constitutive Law Identification and Discovery (EUCLID), we propose an unsupervised Bayesian learning framework for discovery of parsimonious and interpretable constitutive laws with quantifiable uncertainties. As in deterministic EUCLID, we do not resort to stress data, but only to realistically measurable full-field displacement and global reaction force data; as opposed to calibration of an a priori assumed model, we start with a constitutive model ansatz based on a large catalog of candidate functional features; we leverage domain knowledge by including features based on existing, both physics-based and phenomenological, constitutive models. In the new Bayesian-EUCLID approach, we use a hierarchical Bayesian model with sparsity-promoting priors and Monte Carlo sampling to efficiently solve the parsimonious model selection task and discover physically consistent constitutive equations in the form of multivariate multi-modal probabilistic distributions. We demonstrate and validate the ability to accurately and efficiently recover isotropic and anisotropic hyperelastic models like the Neo-Hookean, Isihara, Gent–Thomas, Arruda–Boyce, Ogden, and Holzapfel models in both elastostatics and elastodynamics. The discovered constitutive models are reliable under both epistemic uncertainties — i.e. uncertainties on the true features of the constitutive catalog – and aleatoric uncertainties – which arise from the noise in the displacement field data, and are automatically estimated by the hierarchical Bayesian model.