A method to solve Biot's u-U formulation for soil dynamics applications using the ABAQUS/explicit platform

Abstract

This paper describes a numerical method for solving the coupled equations resulting from Biot's u-U formulation for waves propagating in a saturated porous medium. The proposed ABAQUS Dual Phase Coupling (ADPC) method is implemented in the explicit solver module of the general purpose finite element program ABAQUS. This method features two overlapping meshes representing the fluid and solid phases of the saturated medium respectively. Interactions between the two phases occur via dashpots connecting the two meshes, and also by the use of user-defined material subroutines. In this way, the coupling effects arising from complex dual-phase interaction can be incorporated into the analysis. In this paper, theADPCmethod is restricted to linear material behavior of both the solid and fluid phases. Preliminary validation of the proposed method is carried out using a one-dimensional problem. The good agreement between the ADPC results and published analytical/numerical solutions suggests that the proposed method provides a feasible, alternative approach for studying dynamics problems involving wave propagation in saturated soil media. © 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London.