A large deformation formulation for fluid flow in a progressively fracturing porous material

A general numerical model has been developed for fluid flow in a progressively fracturing porous medium subject to large deformations. The fluid flow away from the crack is modelled in a standard manner using Darcy's relation. In the discontinuity a similar relation is assumed for the fluid flow, but with a different permeability to take into account the higher porosity within the crack due to progressive damage evolution. The crack is described in a discrete manner by exploiting the partition-of-unity property of finite element shape functions. The nucleation and the opening of micro-cracks are modelled by a traction-separation relation. A heuristic approach is adopted to model the orientation of the cracks at the interfaces in the deformed configuration. A two-field formulation is derived, with the solid and the fluid velocities as unknowns. The weak formulation is obtained, assuming a Total Lagrangian formulation. This naturally leads to a set of coupled equations for the continuous and for the discontinuous parts of the mixture. The resulting discrete equations are nonlinear due to the cohesive-crack model, the large-deformation kinematic relations, and the coupling terms between the fine scale and the coarse scale. The capabilities of the model are shown at the hand of some example problems. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.