This is a consistent treatment of the material-independent fundamental equations of the theory of porous media, formulating constitutive equations for frictional materials in the elastic and plastic range, while tracing the historical development of the theory. Thus, for the first time, a unique treatment of fluid-saturated porous solids is presented, including an explanation of the corresponding theory by way of its historical progression, and a thorough description of its current state.

The EUROMECH Colloquium 366, 'Porous Media - Theory and Experiments' was held at the Bildungszentrum fiir die Entsorgungs-und Wasserwirtschaft GmbH B·E·W, Essen, Germany, from 23 to 27 June 1997. The goal of EUROMECH 366 was the presentation of recent findings in the macroscopic porous media theory (mixture theory restricted by the volume fraction concept) concerning general concepts and special investigations in the theoretical as well as the experimental field. Herein, numerical results requiring new solution strategies were also to be included. Moreover, foundations of fundamental state ments in the macroscopic porous media theory (e.g. the effective stress principle for incompressible and compressible constituents by micromechanic investigations) were welcome. Emphasis was placed upon the need to bring together scientists from various branches where porous media theories playa dominant role, namely from theoretical mechanics, agriculture, biomechanics, chemical engineering, geophysics and soil mechanics as well as from petroleum energy and environmental engineering. More than 80 people from 12 different countries expressed their interest in the Colloquium, and finally, 58 took part in the meeting presenting 42 papers. Among the talks were seven principal lectures given by leading scientists in the a.m. fields invited by the organizers. As Chairman of EUROMECH 366, I would like to thank the co-chairmen and all of my co-workers from the Institute of Mechanics, FB 10, University of Essen, for their help in organizing the Colloquium, in particular, Dr.-Ing. W. Walther, Priv.-Doz.

The present volume offers a state-of-the-art report on the various recent sci entific developments in the Theory of Porous Media (TPM) comprehending the basic theoretical concepts in continuum mechanics on porous and mul tiphasic materials as well as the wide range of experimental and numerical applications. Following this, the volume does not only address the sophisti cated reader but also the interested beginner in the area of Porous Media by presenting a collection of articles. These articles written by experts in the field concern the fundamental approaches to multiphasic and porous materials as well as various applications to engineering problems. In many branches of engineering just as in applied natural sciences like bio- and chemomechanics, one often has to deal with continuum mechanical problems which cannot be uniquely classified within the well-known disci plines of either "solid mechanics" or "fluid mechanics". These problems, characterized by the fact that they require a unified treatment of volumetri cally coupled solid-fluid aggregates; basically fall into the categories of either mixtures or porous media. Following this, there is a broad variety of problems ranging in this category as for example the investigation of reacting fluid mix tures or solid-fluid suspensions as well as the investigation of the coupled solid deformation and pore-fluid flow behaviour of liquid- and gas-saturated porous solid skeleton materials like geomaterials (soil, rock, concrete, etc. ), polymeric and metallic foams or biomaterials (hard and soft tissues, etc).

Over the last decade and particularly in recent years, the macroscopic porous media theory has made decisive progress concerning the fundamentals of the theory and the development of mathematical models in various fields of engineering and biomechanics. This progress has attracted some attention, and therefore conferences devoted almost exclusively to the macrosopic porous media theory have been organized in order to collect all findings, to present new results, and to discuss new trends. Many important contributions have also been published in national and international journals, which have brought the porous media theory, in some parts, to a close. Therefore, the time seems to be ripe to review the state of the art and to show new trends in the continuum mechanical treatment of saturated and unsaturated capillary and non-capillary porous solids. This book addresses postgraduate students and scientists working in engineering, physics, and mathematics. It provides an outline of modern theory of porous media and shows some trends in theory and in applications.

This important resource explores recent theoretical advances and modelling on fluids transport in fractal porous systems and presents a systematic understanding of the characterization of complex microstructure and transport mechanism in fractal porous media. Modelling of Flow and Transport in Fractal Porous Media shows how fractal theory and technology, combined with other modern experiments and numerical simulation methods, will assist researchers and practitioners in modelling of transport properties of fractal porous media, such as fluid flow, heat and mass transfer, mechanical characteristics, and electrical conductivity. - Presents the main methods and technologies for transport characterization of fractal porous media, including soils, reservoirs and artificial materials - Provides the most recent theoretical advances in modelling of fractal porous media, including gas and vapor transport in fibrous materials, nonlinear seepage flow in hydrocarbon reservoirs, mass transfer of porous nanofibers, and fractal mechanics of unsaturated soils - Includes multidisciplinary examples of applications of fractal theory to aid researchers and practitioners in characterizing various porous media structures

During the last decades, continuum mechanics of porous materials has achieved great attention, since it allows for the consideration of the volumetrically coupled behaviour of the solid matrix deformation and the pore-fluid flow. Naturally, applications of porous media models range from civil and environmental engineering, where, e. g. , geote- nical problems like the consolidation problem are of great interest, via mechanical engineering, where, e. g. , the description of sinter materials or polymeric and metallic foams is a typical problem, to chemical and biomechanical engineering, where, e. g. , the complex structure of l- ing tissues is studied. Although these applications are principally very different, they basically fall into the category of multiphase materials, which can be described, on the macroscale, within the framework of the well-founded Theory of Porous Media (TPM). With the increasing power of computer hardware together with the rapidly decreasing computational costs, numerical solutions of complex coupled problems became possible and have been seriously investigated. However, since the quality of the numerical solutions strongly depends on the quality of the underlying physical model together with the experimental and mathematical possibilities to successfully determine realistic material parameters, a successful treatment of porous materials requires a joint consideration of continuum mechanics, experimental mechanics and numerical methods. In addition, micromechanical - vestigations and homogenization techniques are very helpful to increase the phenomenological understanding of such media.

This new edition adds several new chapters and is thoroughly updated to include data on new topics such as hydraulic fracturing, CO2 sequestration, sustainable groundwater management, and more. Providing a complete treatment of the theory and practice of groundwater engineering, this new handbook also presents a current and detailed review of how to model the flow of water and the transport of contaminants both in the unsaturated and saturated zones, covers the protection of groundwater, and the remediation of contaminated groundwater.

In the last decades, new experimental and numerical techniques have taken many advanced features of porous media mechanics down to practical engineering applications. This happened in areas that sometimes were not even suspected to be open to engineering ideas at all. The challenge that often faces engineers in the field of geomechanics, biomechanics, rheology and materials science is the translation of ideas existing in one field to solutions in the other. The purpose of the IUTAM symposium from which this proceedings volume has been compiled was to dive deep into the mechanics of those porous media that involve mechanics and chemistry, mechanics and electromagnetism, mechanics and thermal fluctuations of mechanics and biology. The different sections have purposely not been formed according to field interest, but on the basis of the physics involved.