Finite Elastic Deformations in Liquid-Saturated and Empty Porous Solids

Based on the Theory of Porous Media (TPM), a formulation of a fluid-saturated porous solid is presented where both constituents, the solid and the fluid, are assumed to be materially incompressible. Therefore, the so-called point of compaction exists. This deformation state is reached when all pores are closed and any further volume compression is impossible due to the incompressibility constraint of the solid skeleton material. To describe this effect, a new finite elasticity law is developed on the basis of a hyperelastic strain energy function, thus governing the constraint of material incompressibility for the solid material. Furthermore, a power function to describe deformation dependent permeability effects is introduced.After the spatial discretization of the governing field equations within the finite element method, a differential algebraic system in time arises due to the incompressibility constraint of both constituents. For the efficient numerical treatment of the strongly coupled nonlinear solid-fluid problem, a consistent linearization of the weak forms of the governing equations with respect to the unknowns must be used.