Homogenization approach of advection and diffusion in cracked porous material

The present paper aims at studying the effect of microcracks opening on the diffusion and advection processes in a saturated porous medium. It is base d on a micromechanical homogenization approach. The effects of porosity and microcracks are addressed in microscopic and mesoscopic levels to yield es timates of the effective diffusion and permeability tensors. Closed-form ex pressions and numerical results are obtained. For instance, the effect of t he crack density parameter c on the overall properties is discussed: (1) fo r a given value of e, the maximum overall diffusion coefficient decreases f or increasing values of crack radius; and (2) for large crack opening, the overall permeability is mainly controlled by E and almost independent of th e applied stress and the crack radius.