Constitutive equations for saturated hydraulic properties of deforming porous geologic media with compressible solid constituents.

A series of constitutive equations is presented to evaluate the changes in the saturated hydraulic properties (i.e., porosity and saturated hydraulic conductivity) which result from the mechanical deformation of porous geologic media. The constitutive equation for the deformation-dependent porosity is derived from the relationship between the porosity and the volumetric strain considering both solid skeleton and solid constituent (solid grain) to be compressible while the latter is less compressible. The constitutive equation for the deformation-dependent saturated hydraulic conductivity is then obtained by substituting the constitutive equation for the deformation-dependent porosity into the Kozeny-Carman equation assuming that the mechanical deformation of porous geologic media does not alter the shape of the pores since the individual solid grains are relatively incompressible compared with the solid skeleton. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]