Modeling the macroscopic behavior of saturated deformable porous media using direct numerical simulations

• Hybrid LBM-FEM method for direct numerical simulation of saturated porous media deformation.
• Recovering macroscopic behavior of real saturate porous media using model geometries.
• Developing tools for micro-mechanical analysis of saturated porous media.
• Analyzing pore-pressure in lattice Boltzmann simulations.

The behavior of saturated deformable porous media is investigated under compressive loading using direct numerical simulations. A parallel hybrid lattice Boltzmann and Finite Element method is employed to perform the numerical simulations. The efficiency and inherently parallel nature of LBM coupled with the robust FEM lends itself as a powerful tool to carry out the complex and computationally demanding direct numerical simulations of saturated deformable porous media.Model porous media made up of spheres in a simple cubic arrangement are used in this work. The deformational response of such model geometries is compared to an existing analytical solution. For the comparison, the bulk properties of the macroscopic porous medium are obtained through the single phase properties of the constituents. The deformational behavior is seen to match the analytical solution closely. Thus it is found that the macroscopic behavior of a generic porous medium can be recovered through model porous medium constructed with simplified geometries. As a result, it is also seen that the LBM-FEM method is an accurate and suitable method for further investigations on porous media, particularly in nonhomogeneous and anisotropic deformable porous media.