Effect of saturation on thermo-hydro-mechanical coupled responses in porous media

An analytical method is developed for the governing equations for coupling of heat transfer, moisture transfer and deformation in unsaturated porous media based on the theory of wet and thermal elasticity. Compared with the existing experimental results, the calculated results are in good agreement with the experimental ones. The numerical analysis of thermo-hydro-mechanical in porous media is performed, which is a three-dimensional model for asymmetric heat source with different distributions of initial saturation degrees. The results show that when the vertical gradient of the initial saturation is smaller, the pore water is first to flow from the upper part to the lower part of the porous media under the action of gravity. And then the swirling flow is generated under the action of temperature load. On the other hand, when it is larger, the pore water under the action of matrix suction flows from the bottom of the porous media with high saturation to the top of the porous media with low saturation under the effect of matrix suction, and then a swirling flow is produced. With the decrease of the vertical gradient, the center of the swirling gradually moves closer to the center position of the porous media.