SUMMARYIn this contribution an algorithm for parameter identiÿcation of thermoelastic damage models is proposed, in which non-uniform distributions of the state variables such as stresses, strains, damage variables and temperature are taken into account. To this end a least-squares functional consisting of experimental data and simulated data is minimized, whereby the latter are obtained with the ÿnite-element method. In order to improve the e ciency of the minimization process, a gradient-based optimization algorithm is applied, and therefore the corresponding sensitivity analysis for the coupled variational problem is described in a systematic manner. For illustrative purpose, the performance of the algorithm is demonstrated for a non-homogeneous shear problem with thermal loading.