A coupled thermoporoelastic model with thermo-osmosis and thermal-filtration

Abstract

A coupled thermoporoelastic model accounting for compressibility and thermal expansion of constituents, convective heat flow and changing porosity and related properties of a saturated soil is presented. The model also considers thermodynamically coupled water and heat flow (thermal-filtration and thermo-osmosis that are analogous to Sorêt and Dufour effects in solutions) . These coupling effects are reported to be significant in the case of semi-impermeable clay barriers used in waste repositories. The governing equations derived in terms of displacements, temperature and pore water pressure are non-linear. A mixed finite element formulation is presented to obtain numerical solutions. An exact analytical solution for a 1-D soil column is presented for a simplified linear case that includes thermodynamic coupling. Selected numerical solutions for soil columns and radially symmetric plane strain problems are presented to demonstrate the principle features of the coupled model and the significance of thermodynamic coupling.