On the calibration of elastic-plastic models for metal-ceramic functionally graded materials

The mechanical performances of industrial components for advanced engineering applications can be greatly enhanced by a coating with ad-hoc designed metal-ceramic functionally graded materials (FGMs). The continuously varying properties of FGMs can be related to the spatial distribution of their components by a modified rule of mixture; their mechanical behavior is here described by an elastic-plastic model, in which the volume fraction of the material components governs the transition from Huber-Mises theory, typical of the metallic phase, toward a Drucker-Prager constitutive model more suitable to describe the behavior of ceramics. The present communication presents an inverse analysis procedure for the calibration of parameters involved in such elastic-plastic model.