Modeling and Stress Analysis During Drying of a Deformable and Saturated Porous Medium

Abstract

This article addresses how to express the behaviors that develop stresses within a porous media during convective drying processes. The work is focused on the coupling of the thermal (temperature distribution), hygroscopic (moisture, humidity), and mechanical (strains and stresses) aspects shown during the drying process of a saturated porous medium. Natural clay plate samples were used as a model material. Using two different mechanical behaviors (elastic and viscoelastic), the strain–stress equations were studied and discussed through the simulation results. Obtaining almost the same parameters of the main modeling variables (temperature, liquid pressure, and moisture content), a significant difference was observed between the results obtained for the stresses assuming the two behaviors, particularly depending on the viscoelastic parameters deduced from an experimental study. The simulation highlights a response of the medium supposed viscoelastic different to that of elastic case in intensity and response time.

Keywords:

• Clay
• Drying
• Porous saturated media
• Strain–stress relations
• Viscoelasticity