A multi-scale theory of swelling porous media: I. Application to one-dimensional consolidation

A theory is developed which describes flow in multi-scale, saturated swelling media. To upscale information, both the hybrid theory of mixtures and the homogenization technique are employed. In particular, a model is formulated in which vicinal water (water adsorbed to the solid phase) is treated as a separate phase from bulk (non-vicinal) water. A new form of Darcy's law governing the flow of both vicinal and bulk water is derived which involves an interaction potential to account for the swelling nature of the system. The theory is applied to the classical one-dimensional consolidation problem of Terzaghi and to verify Low's empirical, exponential, swelling result for clay at the macroscale.