Poroelastic behaviour of saturated brittle rock with anisotropic damage

A new anisotropic poroelastic damage model is proposed for saturated brittle porous materials. The model is formulated in the framework of the continuum damage mechanics. A second‐rank symmetric tensor is used to characterize material damage due to oriented microcracks. The classic Biot poroelastic theory is then extended to include poroelastic damage coupling. Both the deterioration of elastic properties and poroelastic coefficients is taken into account. A suitable procedure for determination of model parameters from standard laboratory tests is presented. The validity of the model is tested through comparison between numerical predictions and experimental data in various loading conditions. The overall performance of the model is evaluated. The choice of relevant effective stress for the microcrack propagation criterion in saturated cohesive geomaterials is discussed. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.