Theoretical investigation of influence of pore pressure on mechanical response of gas-filled permeable materials

Abstract

The paper is devoted to theoretical investigation of the influence of gas pore pressure on the characteristics of mechanical response of gas-filled permeable materials and media. Investigation was based on computer-aided simulation by hybrid cellular automaton method. Mechanical response of the model gas-filled samples of young brown coal under unconfined (in absence of constraint) and constrained conditions was investigated. The simulation results showed that increase of the pore pressure of the gas acting on the solid skeleton leads to decrease in materials strength. This is due to the fact that the gas pressure makes an additional contribution to integral pressure acting in volume of the loaded medium. Consequences of this are earlier beginning of plastic deformation and fracture of the material. It should be noted that in the constrained conditions decreasing of material strength with increasing gas pore pressure has more pronounced nonlinear character, in comparison with similar tests for unconfined samples. This is due to the fact that loading of constrained material is accompanied by its massive cracking and, consequently, by a grater decrease of the strength characteristics of the medium.