Dynamics of porous media at finite strain Original Research Article

We present a finite element model for the analysis of a mechanical phenomenon involving dynamic expulsion of fluids from a fully saturated porous solid matrix in the regime of large deformation. Momentum and mass conservation laws are written in Lagrangian form by a pull-back from the current configuration to the reference configuration following the solid matrix motion. A complete formulation based on the motion of the solid and fluid phases is first presented; then approximations are made with respect to the material time derivative of the relative flow velocity vector to arrive at a so-called (v,p)-formulation, which is subsequently implemented in a finite element model. We show how the resulting finite element matrix equations can be consistently linearized, using a compressible neo-Hookean hyperelastic material with a Kelvin solid viscous enhancement for the solid matrix as a test function for the nonlinear constitutive model. Numerical examples are presented demonstrating the significance of large deformation effects on the transient dynamic responses of porous structures, as well as the strong convergence profile exhibited by the iterative algorithm.