Study of poroelasticity material coefficients as response of microstructure

Using an asymptotic homogenization method, the effect of the porous medium microstructure on the values of poroelastic coefficients is studied in this paper. First, the Biot’s poroelasticity theory and general relations linking the macroscopic poroelastic coefficients with the averaged micromechanical solutions are recalled. Considering a variational formulation of appropriate boundary values problems stated for the representative volume element, microstructural parameters affecting the values of poroelastic coefficients are identified. In order to clarify specific roles of some relevant microstructure parameters, numerical investigations for some simplified pores geometries are presented. The numerical results obtained clearly show a strong dependence of the poroelastic coefficients on the internal geometry of pores as well as on the global porosity of the medium. In the last part, based on the micromechanics analysis, the definition of initial plastic yield condition for saturated porous media is introduced and a new interpretation of the effective stress concept in inelastic domain is proposed. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.