POROELASTICITY OF SATURATED SOLIDS WITH AN APPLICATION TO BLOOD PERFUSION

A description of finite deformation of, and fluid flow through, a hier archically arranged porous solid has been developed using the theory o f mixtures. This hierarchical mixture consists of one solid constituen t and a fluid constituent that is subdivided into a continuous series of intercommunicating compartments. Conservation laws for mass and mom entum have been derived and appropriate formulations for the constitut ive behaviour of the constituents are proposed. A finite element descr iption of the hierarchical mixture model has been implemented in the s oftware package DIANA. Two-dimensional, axisymmetric and three-dimensi onal elements can be used in finite deformation analysis. An example o f application is blood perfused biological tissue. A simulation of a b lood perfused contracting skeletal muscle is presented. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd