Franz-Josef Ulm – författare

These proceedings represent the latest advances in the mechanics of porous materials, known as poromechanics. The porous materials considered are solids containing voids that are impregnated with fluid. The focus is on the mechanical interactions of the inhomogeneous solid with the single- or multi-phase fluid under the loading of mechanical force, fluid pressure, thermal, chemical, and magnetic fields. The response time can be in static, diffusional, and dynamic ranges. The length scale can start from nano, to micro, macro, and up to field scales. Its application covers many branches of science and engineering, including geophysics, geomechanics, composite materials, biomechanics, acoustics, seismicity, civil, mechanical, environmental, and petroleum engineering. The approaches taken include analytical, computational, and experimental.To honor the pioneering contributions of Maurice A. Biot (1905-1985) to poromechanics, the Biot Conference on Poromechanics was convened for the first time in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium in 1998. The success of the first conference led to the 2nd Biot Conference held in Grenoble, France in 2002. To celebrate the centennial birthday of Biot (May 25, 2005), the 3rd Biot Conference on Poromechanics was held at the University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, U.S.A., on May 24-27, 2005.

Intended as a first introduction to the micromechanics of porous media, this book entitled “Microporomechanics” deals with the mechanics and physics of multiphase porous materials at nano and micro scales. It is composed of a logical and didactic build up from fundamental concepts to state-of-the-art theories. It features four parts: following a brief introduction to the mathematical rules for upscaling operations, the first part deals with the homogenization of transport properties of porous media within the context of asymptotic expansion techniques. The second part deals with linear microporomechanics, and introduces linear mean-field theories based on the concept of a representative elementary volume for the homogenization of poroelastic properties of porous materials. The third part is devoted to Eshelby’s problem of ellipsoidal inclusions, on which much of the micromechanics techniques are based, and illustrates its application to linear diffusion and microporoelasticity. Finally, the fourth part extends the analysis to microporo-in-elasticity, that is the nonlinear homogenization of a large range of frequently encountered porous material behaviors, namely, strength homogenization, nonsaturated microporomechanics, microporoplasticity and microporofracture and microporodamage theory.