Strength properties of porous media by means of a non-linear elastic approach

Abstract

The present paper describes a formulation of macroscopic strength properties of porous media relying on the simulation of the regime o plastic flow of the solid matrix by means of an appropriate fictitious non-linear elastic law. Explicit expression for the latter is derived in the particular case of a frictional solid matrix characterized by a Drucker-Prager yield condition. The approach is thus implemented in a numerical procedure specifically devised for evaluating the yield stresses of a porous medium. The finite element solutions are therefore compared to micromechanics-based analytical expression previously developed for the yield function. The last part of the paper is devoted to the formulation of phenomenological yield function for porous media with frictional solid matrix by combining the micromechanics-based approach and fitting the finite element results.