A Micropolar Theory of Porous Media: Constitutive Modelling

The extension of the classical mixture theory by the concept of volume fractions leads to the theory of porous media. In this article, the theory of porous media is generalised to micropolar constituents. The kinematic relations and the balance equations for a porous medium are developed without restricting the number of constituents. Based on the entropy inequality, the general form of the constitutive equations are derived for a binary medium consisting of a porous elastic skeleton saturated by a viscous pore-fluid. Both constituents are assumed to be compressible. Handling the saturation constraint by a Lagrangian multiplier leads to a compatibility of the proposed model to so-called hybrid and incompressible models.     

A constitutive model for plastically anisotropic solids with non-spherical voids

Plastic constitutive relations are derived for a class of anisotropic porous materials consisting of coaxial spheroidal voids, arbitrarily oriented relative to the embedding orthotropic matrix. The derivations are based on nonlinear homogenization, limit analysis and micromechanics. A variational principle is formulated for the yield criterion of the effective medium and specialized to a spheroidal representative volume element containing a confocal spheroidal void and subjected to uniform boundary deformation. To obtain closed form equations for the effective yield locus, approximations are introduced in the limit-analysis based on a restricted set of admissible microscopic velocity fields. Evolution laws are also derived for the microstructure, defined in terms of void volume fraction, aspect ratio and orientation, using material incompressibility and Eshelby-like concentration tensors. The new yield criterion is an extension of the well known isotropic Gurson model. It also extends previous analyses of uncoupled effects of void shape and material anisotropy on the effective plastic behavior of solids containing voids. Preliminary comparisons with finite element calculations of voided cells show that the model captures non-trivial effects of anisotropy heretofore not picked up by void growth models.     

On the formulation of contact problems of shells and plates

The equations of motion in terms of resultants and the constitutive equations in the theory of shells and plates are ordinarily derived from the three-dimensional equations relative to an interior surface, often taken to be the middle surface in the reference configuration of the shell-like body. This usual formulation is not, in general, applicable to contact problems of shells for which one of the major surfaces, e.g., the upper surface, is specified as the reference surface. The present paper is concerned with the transformation relations between the relevant variables (and hence also the response functions) of the traditional formulation and one which can be obtained relative to one of the major surfaces. Our derivations, carried out both from the three-dimensional equations and by a direct approach, utilize only the conservation laws and the field equations without recourse to constitutive equations. Hence, the results are applicable to any shell-like medium and their validity is not limited to elastic shells alone.     

The constitutive equations of finite strain poroelasticity in the light of a micro-macro approach

After recalling the constitutive equations of finite strain poroelasticity formulated at the macroscopic level, we adopt a microscopic point of view which consists of describing the fluid-saturated porous medium at a space scale on which the fluid and solid phases are geometrically distinct. The constitutive equations of poroelasticity are recovered from the analysis conducted on a representative elementary volume of porous material open to fluid mass exchange. The procedure relies upon the solution of a boundary value problem defined on the solid domain of the representative volume undergoing large elastic strains. The macroscopic potential, computed as the integral of the free energy density over the solid domain, is shown to depend on the macroscopic deformation gradient and the porous space volume as relevant variables. The corresponding stress-type variables obtained through the differentiation of this potential turn out to be the macroscopic Boussinesq stress tensor and the pore pressure. Furthermore, such a procedure makes it possible to establish the necessary and sufficient conditions to ensure the validity of an ‘effective stress’ formulation of the constitutive equations of finite strain poroelasticity. Such conditions are notably satisfied in the important case of an incompressible solid matrix.     

Poromechanics of microporous media

Microporous media, i.e., porous media made of pores with a nanometer size, are important for a variety of applications, for instance for sequestration of carbon dioxide in coal, or for storage of hydrogen in metal-organic frameworks. In a pore of nanometer size, fluid molecules are not in their bulk state anymore since they interact with the atoms of the solid: they are said to be in an adsorbed state. For such microporous media, conventional poromechanics breaks down.In this work we derive poroelastic constitutive equations which are valid for a generic porous medium, i.e., even for a porous medium with pores of nanometer size. The complete determination of the poromechanical behavior of a microporous medium requires knowing how the amount of fluid adsorbed depends on both the fluid bulk pressure and the strain of the medium. The derived constitutive equations are validated with the help of molecular simulations on one-dimensional microporous media. Even when a microporous medium behaves linearly in the absence of any fluid (i.e., its bulk modulus does not depend on strain), we show that fluid adsorption can induce non-linear behavior (i.e., its drained bulk modulus can then depend significantly on strain). We also show that adsorption can lead to an apparent Biot coefficient of the microporous medium greater than unity or smaller than zero.The poromechanical response of a microporous medium to adsorption significantly depends on the pore size distribution. Indeed, the commensurability (i.e., the ratio of the size of the pores to that of the fluid molecules) proves to play a major role. For a one-dimensional model of micropores with a variety of pore sizes, molecular simulations show that the amount of adsorbed fluid depends linearly on the strain of the medium. We derive linearized constitutive equations which are valid when such a linear dependence of the adsorbed amount of fluid on the strain is observed.As an application, the case of methane and coal is considered. Molecular simulations of an adsorption of methane on a microporous realistic model for coal are performed with a flexible solid skeleton. The applicability of the set of linearized constitutive equations to this case is discussed and the results are shown to be consistent with swelling data measured during a classical adsorption experiment.     

Analysis of shear localization in porous materials

A set of constitutive equations are derived based on the authors' lower bound yield loci for porous materials. By using these equations, the conditions for shear localization in porous materials are then investigated and the results are compared with those of Gurson's equations and the finite element analysis. The advantages of the present constitutive equations are fully illustrated.     

Multicomponent, Multiphase Thermodynamics of Swelling Porous Media with Electroquasistatics: II. Constitutive Theory

In Part I macroscopic field equations of mass, linear and angular momentum, energy, and the quasistatic form of Maxwell's equations for a multiphase, multicomponent medium were derived. Here we exploit the entropy inequality to obtain restrictions on constitutive relations at the macroscale for a 2-phase, multiple-constituent, polarizable mixture of fluids and solids. Specific emphasis is placed on charged porous media in the presence of electrolytes. The governing equations for the stress tensors of each phase, flow of the fluid through a deforming medium, and diffusion of constituents through such a medium are derived. The results have applications in swelling clays (smectites), biopolymers, biological membranes, pulsed electrophoresis, chromotography, drug delivery, and other swelling systems.     

Wave propagation in fractured porous media

A theory of wave propagation in fractured porous media is presented based on the double-porosity concept. The macroscopic constitutive relations and mass and momentum balance equations are obtained by volume averaging the microscale balance and constitutive equations and assuming small deformations. In microscale, the grains are assumed to be linearly elastic and the fluids are Newtonian. Momentum transfer terms are expressed in terms of intrinsic and relative permeabilities assuming the validity of Darcy's law in fractured porous media. The macroscopic constitutive relations of elastic porous media saturated by one or two fluids and saturated fractured porous media can be obtained from the constitutive relations developed in the paper. In the simplest case, the final set of governing equations reduce to Biot's equations containing the same parameters as of Biot and Willis.Now at Izmir Institute of Technology, Anafartalar Cad. 904, Basmane 35230, Izmir, Turkey.     

Macroscopic Flow Potentials in Swelling Porous Media

In swelling porous media, the potential for flow is much more than pressure, and derivations for flow equations have yielded a variety of equations. In this article, we show that the macroscopic flow potentials are the electro-chemical potentials of the components of the fluid and that other forms of flow equations, such as those derived through mixture theory or homogenization, are a result of particular forms of the chemical potentials of the species. It is also shown that depending upon whether one is considering the pressure of a liquid in a reservoir in electro-chemical equilibrium with the swelling porous media, or the pressure of the vicinal liquid within the swelling porous media, a critical pressure gradient threshold exists or does not.     

CONSTITUTIVE RELATION OF UNSATURATED SOIL BY USE OF THE MIXTURE THEORY (Ⅱ)—LINEAR CONSTITUTIVE EQUATIONS AND FIELD EQUATIONS

IntroductionInpart(Ⅰ )ofthework[1],byuseofmixturetheory ,thenonlinearconstitutiveequationsandthefieldequationsofunsaturatedsoilwereconstructed ,andthecompleteequationsforthethermodynamicsystemofunsaturatedsoilwasformed .Inthispart,thelinearconstitutiveequationsandfieldequationsofunsaturatedsoilareobtainedthroughlinearizingnonlinearequations,andthelinearequationsarewrittenintheformssimilartoBiot’sequationsforsaturatedporousmedia .ItisprovedthatDarcy’slawissuitabletodescribethemotionofliquid…     

A linear dynamic model for a saturated porous medium

A linear isothermal dynamic model for a porous medium saturated by a Newtonian fluid is developed in the paper. In contrast to the mixture theory, the assumption of phase separation is avoided by introducing a single constitutive energy function for the porous medium. An important advantage of the proposed model is it can account for the couplings between the solid skeleton and the pore fluid. The mass and momentum balance equations are obtained according to the generalized mixture theory. Constitutive relations for the stress, the pore pressure are derived from the total free energy accounting for inter-phase interaction. In order to describe the momentum interaction between the fluid and the solid, a frequency independent Biot-type drag force model is introduced. A temporal variable porosity model with relaxation accounting for additional attenuation is introduced for the first time. The details of parameter estimation are discussed in the paper. It is demonstrated that all the material parameters in our model can be estimated from directly measurable phenomenological parameters. In terms of the equations of motion in the frequency domain, the wave velocities and the attenuations for the two P waves and one S wave are calculated. The influences of the porosity relaxation coefficient on the velocities and attenuation coefficients of the three waves of the porous medium are discussed in a numerical example.     

Theory of thin thermoelastic rods made of porous materials

In this paper, we consider thin rods modeled by the direct approach, in which the rod-like body is regarded as a one-dimensional continuum (i.e., a deformable curve) with a triad of rigidly rotating orthonormal vectors attached to each material point. In this context, we present a model for porous thermoelastic curved rods, having natural twisting and arbitrary shape of cross-section. To describe the porosity, we employ the theory of elastic materials with voids. The basic laws of thermodynamics are applied directly to the one-dimensional continuum, and the nonlinear governing equations are established. We formulate the constitutive equations and determine the structure of constitutive tensors. We prove the uniqueness of solution to the boundary-initial-value problem associated with the deformation of porous thermoelastic rods in the framework of linear theory. Then, we show the decoupling of the bending-shear and extension-torsion problems for straight porous rods. Using a comparison with three-dimensional equations, we identify and give interpretations to the relevant fields introduced in the direct approach. Finally, we consider the case of orthotropic materials and determine the constitutive coefficients for deformable curves in terms of three-dimensional constitutive constants by means of comparison between simple solutions obtained in the two approaches for porous thermoelastic rods.     

Relations Between Seepage Velocities in Immiscible,Incompressible Two-Phase Flow in Porous Media

Based on thermodynamic considerations, we derive a set of equations relating the seepage velocities of the fluid components in immiscible and incompressible two-phase flow in porous media. They necessitate the introduction of a new velocity function, the co-moving velocity. This velocity function is a characteristic of the porous medium. Together with a constitutive relation between the velocities and the driving forces, such as the pressure gradient, these equations form a closed set. We solve four versions of the capillary tube model analytically using this theory. We test the theory numerically on a network model.     

On the motion of a fluid-saturated porous solid

Two-parameter structure model of a porous solid is proposed as an approximation of a real porous structure and the macroscopic mass and momentum balance equations are derived for such a medium filled with liquid. The approach presented leads to the equations of motion for a fluid-saturated porous medium with coupling terms via cross-mass couplings. The linear form of these equations is equivalent to the well-known Biot equations.     

On the modelling of miscible displacements in porous media with stagnant fluid

Equations of miscible fluids displacement in porous media presenting a capacitance effect, i.e., porous media with a mobile fraction and a stagnant fraction, are derived by means of a volume or a surface averaging technique in the case of high Peclet numbers. The models thus obtained are constituted by two coupled equations. The first is a convective-dispersive equation related to the transfer in mobile fraction; the second is a first-order rate expression describing mass transfer between the mobile and immobile regions. These derivations justify the equations which can be obtained by means of an heuristic approach and specify their conditions of validity.These models are compared to the models in which the second equation is a diffusion equation; the latter are shown to be erroneous.     

Scattered fracture of porous materials with brittle skeleton

A model of damage accumulation in a porous medium with a brittle skeleton saturated with a compressible fluid is formulated in the isothermal approximation. The model takes account of the skeleton elastic energy transformation into the surface energy of microcracks. In the case of arbitrary deformations of an anisotropic material, constitutive equations are obtained in a general form that is necessary and sufficient for the objectivity and thermodynamic consistency principles to be satisfied. We also formulate the kinetics equation ensuring that the scattered fracture dissipation is nonnegative for any loading history. For small deviations from the initial state, we propose an elastic potential which permits describing the principal characteristics of the behavior of a saturated porous medium with a brittle skeleton. We study the acoustic properties of the material under study and find their relationship with the strength criterion depending on the accumulated damage and the material current deformation. We consider the problem of scattered fracture of a saturated porous material in a neighborhood of a spherical cavity. We show that the cavity failure occurs if the Hadamard condition is violated.     

Phase-field modeling of hydraulic fracture

In this work a theoretical framework implementing the phase-field approach to fracture is used to couple the physics of flow through porous media and cracks with the mechanics of fracture. The main modeling challenge addressed in this work, which is a challenge for all diffuse crack representations, is on how to allow for the flow of fluid and the action of fluid pressure on the aggregate within the diffuse damage zone of the cracks. The theory is constructed by presenting the general physical balance laws and conducting a consistent thermodynamic analysis to constrain the constitutive relationships. Constitutive equations that reproduce the desired responses at the various limits of the phase-field parameter are proposed in order to capture Darcy-type flow in the intact porous medium and Stokes-type flow within open cracks. A finite element formulation for the solution of the governing model equations is presented and discussed. Finally, the theoretical and numerical model is shown to compare favorably to several important analytical solutions. More complex and interesting calculations are also presented to illustrate some of the advantageous features of the approach.     

Micro-mechanical behaviors of SMA composite materials under hygro-thermo-elastic strain fields

An analytical procedure to evaluate the behavior of shape memory alloy (SMA) composite under hygrothermal environment is presented. The SMA wires are considered as inclusions embedded in a homogeneous matrix medium of the composite. The inhomogeneity associated with the phase transformation and thermal strains in the SMA wire as well as the hygrothermal strain in the matrix is homogenized using Eshelby’s equivalent inclusion method. In the present work, a similar approach adopted for SMA composites by Marfia and Sacco [Marfia, S., Sacco, E., 2005. Micromechanics and homogenisation of SMA-wire-reinforced materials. J. Appl. Mech. 72 (2), 259–268.] is considered in order to validate the response of SMA composite subjected to thermo-elastic strain field. However, in the present approach, certain modifications and new derivations for the inelastic strain tensors is carried out. First, the constitutive laws for the SMA wire and matrix are expressed in terms of the average strain in the composite. The evolutionary equations used to characterize the pseudoelastic (PE) behavior of the SMA wire are redefined in terms of the eigen strains (phase transformation and thermal strains) occurring in the SMA wire, which are then expressed in terms of the average strain in the composite. Further, the SMA composite constitutive law under coupled hygro-thermo-elastic strain fields is proposed. The generic homogenized hygric and thermal inelastic composite tensors required for the proposed hygro-thermo-elastic constitutive law are derived. Finally, the SMA composite lamina is characterized using Eshelby’s equivalent inclusion method. Using the proposed modifications and derivations, the analytical results are validated for the case of thermo-elastic strain fields and the procedure is then extended to evaluate the SMA composite behavior under hygro-thermo-elastic strain fields. The results include the effect of thermo-elastic and hygro-thermo-elastic strains on the transformation stresses and the nature of hysteresis due to hygric and thermo-elastic strains.     

不可压饱和粘弹性多孔介质的变分原理及其无网格模拟

基于饱和多孔介质理论,在固相和液相微观不可压,固相骨架小变形且满足线性粘弹性积分型本构关系的假定下,建立了流体饱和粘弹性多孔介质动力响应的若干Gurtin型变分原理,包括Hu-Washizu变分原理.利用所建立的变分原理,导出了流体饱和粘弹性多孔介质动力响应无网格数值模拟的离散控制方程,此方程是一个关于时间的对称微分方程组,便于分析计算.作为数值例子,研究了流体饱和粘弹性多孔柱体的一维动力响应,数值结果揭示了流体饱和粘弹性多孔柱体中波的传播特性以及固相粘性的影响.     

A micropolar mixture theory of multi-component porous media

A mixture theory is developed for multi-component micropolar porous media with a combination of the hybrid mixture theory and the micropolar continuum theory. The system is modeled as multi-component micropolar elastic solids saturated with multi- component micropolar viscous fluids. Balance equations are given through the mixture theory. Constitutive equations are developed based on the second law of thermodynamics and constitutive assumptions. Taking account of compressibility of solid phases, the volume fraction of fluid as an independent state variable is introduced in the free energy function, and the dynamic compatibility condition is obtained to restrict the change of pressure difference on the solid-fluid interface. The constructed constitutive equations are used to close the field equations. The linear field equations are obtained using a linearization procedure, and the micropolar thermo-hydro-mechanical component transport model is established. This model can be applied to practical problems, such as contaminant, drug, and pesticide transport. When the proposed model is supposed to be porous media, and both fluid and solid are single-component, it will almost agree with Eringen＇s model.