Homogenization Approach of Advection and Diffusion in Cracked Porous Material

The present paper aims at studying the effect of microcracks opening on the diffusion and advection processes in a saturated porous medium. It is based on a micromechanical homogenization approach. The effects of porosity and microcracks are addressed in microscopic and mesoscopic levels to yield estimates of the effective diffusion and permeability tensors. Closedform expressions and numerical results are obtained. For instance, the effect of the crack density parameter on the overall properties is discussed: (1) for a given value of , the maximum overall diffusion coefficient decreases for increasing values of crack radius; and (2) for large crack opening, the overall permeability is mainly controlled by and almost independent of the applied stress and the crack radius.