Micromechanics of saturated and unsaturated porous media

Abstract

Abstract The homogenization method is used to determine the formulation of the behaviour of both saturated and unsaturated porous media. This approach makes it possible to assess the validity of the effective stress concept as a function of the properties of the porous media at the microscopic scale. Furthermore, the influence of the morphologies of the solid and fluid phases on the macroscopic behaviour is studied. The strain induced by drying is examined as a function of the morphological properties. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.