3. Computational Poromechanics

Lecturer
Ronaldo I. Borja

Introduction

This lecture deals with the mechanics of porous media including solid deformation and fluid flow. Porous media are relevant to many areas of engineering and science, including biomechanics, physical chemistry, materials science, geomechanics, geosciences, and petroleum engineering. Some applications include coupled solid deformation/ fluid flow of earth structures and mass transport through soft and hard tissues.
After a brief introduction on the concept of volume fraction and both particle and continuum scale, the flow through porous media will be presented focusing on general conservation laws and constitutive assumptions.
Finit element formulation for both fluid conduction problems and soil deformation problems will be treated, then, consequently, the coupled solid deformation-fluid flow problems will be discussed.
Moreover, in the framework of the bifurcation theory, the following topics will be discussed: drained and undrained bifurcation, shear bands and compaction bands.