2 IJSS 2009 PrevostBendingofaPoroelasticBeamwithLateralDiffusion.pdf

Bending of a poroelastic beam with lateral diffusion George W. Scherer *, Jean H. Prévost, Zhi-Hua Wang Dept. Civil Env. Eng., Eng. Quad. E-319, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 17 February 2009 Received in revised form 27 May 2009 Available online 6 June 2009 Keywords: Stress relaxation Beams and columns Porous material Strain compatibility Finite elements a b s t r a c t Bending an elastic beam leads to a complicated 3D stress distribution, but the shear and transverse stres- ses are so small in a slender beam that a good approximation is obtained by assuming purely uniaxial stress. In this paper, we demonstrate that the same is true for a saturated poroelastic beam. Previous studies of poroelastic beams have shown that, to satisfy the Beltrami–Michell compatibility conditions, it is necessary to introduce either a normal transverse stress or shear stresses in addition to the bending stress. The problem is further complicated if lateral diffusion is permitted. In this study, a fully coupled finite element analysis (FEA) incorporating the lateral diffusion effect is presented. Results predicted by the ‘‘exact” numerical solution, including load relaxation, pore pressure, stresses and strains, are com- pared to an approximate analytical solution that incorporates the assumptions of simple beam theory. The applicability of the approximate beam-bending solution is investigated by comparing it to FEA sim- ulations of beams with various aspect ratios. For ‘‘beams” with large width-to-height ratios, the Poisson effect causes vertical deflections that cannot be neglected. It is suggested that a theory of plate bending is needed in the case of poroelastic media with large width-to-height ratios. Nevertheless, use of the approximate solution yields very small errors over the range of width-to-height ratios (viz., 1–4) explored with FEA.  2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Poroelastic analys