Hydromechanical Modeling of Unsaturated Flow in Double Porosity Media
Publication: International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 16, Issue 6
Abstract
Geomaterials with aggregated structure or containing fissures often exhibit a bimodal pore size distribution that can be viewed as two coexisting pore regions of different scales. The double-porosity concept enables continuum modeling of such materials by considering two interacting pore scales satisfying relevant conservation laws. This paper develops a thermodynamically consistent framework for hydromechanical modeling of unsaturated flow in double-porosity media. With an explicit treatment of the two pore scales, conservation laws are formulated incorporating an effective stress tensor that is energy-conjugate to the rate of deformation tensor of the solid matrix. A constitutive framework is developed on the basis of energy-conjugate pairs identified in the first law of thermodynamics, which is then incorporated into a three-field mixed finite-element formulation for double-porosity media. Numerical simulations of laboratory- and field-scale problems are presented to demonstrate the impact of double porosity on the resulting hydromechanical responses.
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Acknowledgments
This material is based on work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Geosciences Research Program, under Award Number DE-FG02-03ER15454. Financial support for the first author was provided by the Fulbright Program and the John A. Blume Earthquake Engineering Center.
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International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 16 • Issue 6 • December 2016
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© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Sep 19, 2014
Accepted: Jun 16, 2015
Published online: Jan 28, 2016
Discussion open until: Jun 28, 2016
Published in print: Dec 1, 2016
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