Author(s)

A.P.S. Selvadurai

Abstract

This paper proposes the concept of stationary damage of the porous fabric of a poroelastic material as a means of examining the transient processes that occur in contact problems associated with poroelastic media. This approach combines the advantages of classical elastostatic contact problems in identifying the extent of initial damage during indentation of a fluid saturated porous medium. The stationary damage concept transforms the initially homogeneous medium to one that is both elastically and hydraulically inhomogeneous. Standard computational procedures can then be applied to solve the resulting poroelastic contact problem. 1 Introduction A mathematical model of the one-dimensional response of a fluid saturated porous medium was first examined by Karl Terzaghi. Many others including Paul Fillunger have contribu

Keywords