Finite element investigation of thermo-elastic and thermo-plastic consolidation

The transient response of saturated continua due to thermal as well as mechanical loads is investigated in both elastic and plastic ranges. When the two phase saturated media are subjected to thermomechanical loading, the energy equation is coupled with the mass flow and solid deformation equations resulting in the initial boundary value problem of thermal consolidation. The solid behavior may be assumed to be either elastic or elastoplastic leading to the associated theories of thermoelastic and thermoelastoplastic consolidation. The governing equations for the quasi-static infinitesimal theory of thermoelastic consolidation are developed by using the theory of mixtures. An equivalent variational principle is developed along with associated finite element formulations. Two isoparametric elements of the composite type are employed for the spatial discretization. The formulation is extended to the plastic ranges by modeling the solid phase as an elastic work hardening material with an associated flow rule. An incremental iterative scheme is developed to solve this nonlinear transient problem. Several special purpose computer codes are developed for evaluating the isothermal, thermal, elastic and elastoplastic plane strain consolidation responses. These codes have been evaluated against limiting cases available in the literature. The effects of temporal and spatial interpolation schemes are investigated for one-dimensional thermoelastic consolidation problems. An application dealing with a plane strain underground coal gasification problem is also presented