Abstract:The elastic, plastic, and viscous properties of polymer-based composites serve as critical indicators for their mechanical characterization and engineering applications. In recent years, the rapidly developing indentation technique has gained prominence for assessing mechanical behavior and evaluating the mechanical properties of various materials due to its high resolution, versatility, and applicability. Numerous numerical methods, especially the finite element model updating (FEMU) approach, have been developed in conjunction with indentation techniques to reveal the elastoplastic properties and provide valuable insights for material design, property optimization, and engineering applications. However, the commonly used load-displacement curve cannot capture the spatial distribution of deformation responses, thereby limiting its capability in exploring material properties and calibrating constitutive models. In this study, an in-situ stepwise spherical micro-indentation test was performed on a particle-reinforced epoxy resin, followed by X-ray micro-computed tomography (CT) imaging at each step. A self-adaptive digital volume correlation (SA-DVC) approach was employed to measure the displacement and strain fields in the vicinity of the contact zone. The accuracy of elastic, plastic, and viscous parameters identification was enhanced through enriching the cost function in the FEMU approach with the discrepancies between DVC-measured and the FEM-predicted spatiotemporal deformation fields. The identification errors of typical elastic and viscous parameters were decreased by 11% compared to the traditional method using the discrepancy in the force-displacement curve. The presented framework, allowing the elastic-viscoplastic parameter identification and the internal viscous-plastic stress fields reconstruction under the spherical indentation condition, contributes to a better understanding of the material properties of particle-reinforced epoxy resins.