Non-axisymmetric Biot consolidation analysis of multi-layered saturated poroelastic materials with anisotropic permeability

To start with, an analytical layer-element (i.e., a symmetric stiffness matrix), which describes the relationship between the generalized displacements and the stress levels of a layer subjected to non-axisymmetric loading, is exactly derived in the transformed domain by the application of a Laplace–Hankel transform with respect to variables t and r, a Fourier expansion with respect to variable θ, and a Laplace transform and its inversion with respect to variable z, based on the governing equations of Biot’s consolidation of multi-layered saturated poroelastic materials with anisotropic permeability. The analytical layer-element experiences considerable improvement in computation efficiency and stability, since it only contains negative exponential functions in its elements. In addition, a global stiffness matrix for multi-layered saturated poroelastic media is obtained by assembling the interrelated layer-elements based on the continuity conditions between adjacent layers. By introducing the boundary conditions and solving the global stiffness matrix, the solutions in the Laplace–Hankel transformed domain are obtained, and the final solutions can be recovered by a numerical inversion of the Laplace–Hankel transform. Finally, numerical examples are presented to verify the theory and to study the effect of the property of anisotropic permeability on vertical displacements and excess pore pressure. The calculation results show that the property of anisotropic permeability has a great influence on the process of consolidation.