Formulation of thermo-hydro-mechanical coupling behavior of unsaturated soils based on hybrid mixture theory

Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical （THM） coupling pro- cesses in unsaturated soils are very important in both theoretical researches and engineering applications. A coupled formulation based on hybrid mixture theory is derived to model the THM coupling behavior of unsaturated soils. The free-energy and dissipative functions for different phases are derived from Taylor＇s series expansions. Constitutive relations for THM coupled behaviors of unsaturated soils, which include deformation, entropy change, fluid flow, heat conduction, and dynamic compatibility conditions on the interfaces, are then established. The number of field equations is shown to be equal to the number of unknown variables; thus, a closure of this coupling problem is established. In addition to modifications of the physical conservation equations with coupling effect terms, the constitutive equations, which consider the coupling between elastoplastic deformation of the soil skeleton, fluid flow, and heat transfer, are also derived.

A micropolar mixture theory of multi-component porous media

A mixture theory is developed for multi-component micropolar porous media with a combination of the hybrid mixture theory and the micropolar continuum theory. The system is modeled as multi-component micropolar elastic solids saturated with multi- component micropolar viscous fluids. Balance equations are given through the mixture theory. Constitutive equations are developed based on the second law of thermodynamics and constitutive assumptions. Taking account of compressibility of solid phases, the volume fraction of fluid as an independent state variable is introduced in the free energy function, and the dynamic compatibility condition is obtained to restrict the change of pressure difference on the solid-fluid interface. The constructed constitutive equations are used to close the field equations. The linear field equations are obtained using a linearization procedure, and the micropolar thermo-hydro-mechanical component transport model is established. This model can be applied to practical problems, such as contaminant, drug, and pesticide transport. When the proposed model is supposed to be porous media, and both fluid and solid are single-component, it will almost agree with Eringen＇s model.

A nonlinear multi-field coupled model for soils

A nonlinear multi-field coupled model for multi-constituent three-phase soils is derived by using the hybrid mixture theory. The balance equations with three levels (constituents, phases and the whole mixture soil) are set up under the assumption that soil is composed of multi-constituent elastic-plastic solid skeleton (which is different from the linearization method) and viscous liquid and ideal gas. With reasonable constitutive assumptions in such restrictive conditions as the principles of determinism, equipresence, material frame-indifference and the compatible principle in continuum mechanics, a theoretical framework of constitutive relations modeling three-phase soil in both non-equilibrium and equilibrium states is established, thus the closed field equations are formed. In the theoretical framework, the concept of effective generalized thermodynamic forces is introduced, and the nonlinear coupling constitutive relations between generalized dissipation forces and generalized flows within the system at nonequilibrium state are also presented. On such a basis, four special coupling relations, i.e., solid thermal elastic-plastic constitutive relation, liquid visco-elastic-plastic constitutive relation, the generalized Fourier’s law, and the generalized Darcy’s law are put forward. The generalized or nonlinear results mentioned above can degenerate into the linear coupling results given by Bennethum and Singh. Based on a specific dissipation function, the concrete form of generalized Darcy’s law is deduced, which may degenerate into the traditional form of Darcy’s law by neglecting the influence of skeleton deformation and temperature. Without considering temperature and other coupling effects, the nonlinear coupled model in this paper can degenerate into a soil elastic-plastic constitutive model.