Phase transition in saturated porous media: Pore-fluid segregation in consolidation

Consider the consolidation process typical of soils; this phenomenon is expected not to exhibit a unique state of equilibrium, depending on external loading and constitutive parameters. Beyond the standard solution also, pore-fluid segregation can arise. Pore-fluid segregation has been recognized as a phenomenon typical of the short time behavior of a saturated porous slab or a saturated porous sphere, during consolidation. In both circumstances, the Biot three-dimensional model provides time increasing values of the water pressure (and fluid mass density) at the center of the slab (or of the sphere), at early times, if the Lamé constant μ of the skeleton is different from zero. This localized pore-fluid segregation is known in the literature as the Mandel–Cryer effect. In this paper, a nonlinear poromechanical model is formulated. The model is able to describe the occurrence of two states of equilibrium and the switching from one to the other by considering a kind of phase transition. Extending the classical Biot theory, a more than quadratic strain energy potential is postulated, depending on the strain of the porous material and the variation of the fluid mass density (measured with respect to the skeleton reference volume). When the consolidating pressure is strong enough, the existence of two distinct minima is proven.