ENHANCED CONSOLIDATION IN BRITTLE GEOMATERIALS SUSCEPTIBLE TO DAMAGE

This paper examines consolidation behaviour of saturated geomaterials with a matrix component which is susceptible to damage. Finite-element -based computational model accounts for the alteration in both the def ormability and permeability characteristics of the porous material clu e to damage evolution. The isotropic damage criteria governing the evo lution of elastic stiffness and hydraulic conductivity parameters are characterized by the dependency of the damage variable on the distorti onal strain invariant. The computational procedure is utilized to eval uate the extent to which the time-dependent axisymmetric indentation b ehaviour of a rigid circular punch on a poroelastic half-space can be influenced by the damage evolution in the porous skeleton. (C) 1998 Jo hn Wiley & Sons, Ltd.