Response of saturated porous media subjected to local thermal loading on the surface of semi-infinite space

Heat source function method is adopted in the present paper to derive elementary solutions of coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical consolidation for saturated porous media under conjunct actions of instantaneous point heat source, instantaneous point fluid source and constant volume force. By using the so-called fictitious heat source method and images method, the solutions of a semi-infinite saturated porous medium subjected to a local heat source with time-varied intensity on its free surface are developed from elementary solutions. The numerical integral methods for calculating the unsteady temperature, pore pressure and displacement fields are given. The thermomechanical response are analyzed for the case of a circular planar heat source. Besides, the thermal consolidation characteristics of a saturated porous medium subjected to a harmonic thermal loading are also given, and the fluctuation processes of the field variables located below the center of heat source are analyzed. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (50578008) The English text was polished byYunming Chen.