Undrained pore fluid flow and stress analysis

This problem contains basic test cases for one or more Abaqus elements and features.

This page discusses:

Products Abaqus/Explicit

Elements tested

  • C3D4
  • C3D5
  • C3D6
  • C3D8
  • C3D8R
  • C3D10M
  • CPE3
  • CPE4R
  • CPE6M
  • CAX3
  • CAX4R
  • CAX6M

Features tested

Undrained pore fluid flow and stress analysis.

Problem description

Abaqus uses a unit cube of geometry with distorted meshes to test three-dimensional solid elements and a simple rectangular geometry to test plane strain elements as well as axisymmetric solid elements. The skeleton materials are linear isotropic elastic with E = 3000 , ρ = 1200 , and ν = 0.3 . The permeating pore fluid has a density, ρ w = 1000 , and a bulk modulus, K w = 2.1 e 9 . The bulk modulus of the grains is K g = 3.7 e 7 . The medium is subject to prescribed displacement boundary conditions to control volumetric deformation. You can compare the numerical results with a reference solution.

Reference solution

The reference solution is based on the analytical equations of a fully saturated medium with prescribed volumetric deformation under undrained conditions. This leads to a nonlinear system of equations that is solved numerically.

Results and discussion

All tests using different element types produce the expected results, and the pore pressure agrees well with the reference solution. Figure 1 shows the pore pressures obtained by the different three-dimensional solid elements, including the element C3D8R with an Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) adaptive mesh domain, compared with the reference solution as a function of time. Figure 2 shows the results of plane strain elements, including CPE4R with an Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) adaptive mesh domain, compared with the reference solution.

Figures

Figure 1. Pore pressures with different three-dimensional elements.

Figure 2. Pore pressures with different plane strain elements.