Moving load on a porous,liquid-saturated solid

Summary The object of this paper is to study the stresses produced in a porous liquid-saturated solid of the type considered byBiot 1]²) by a normal load moving along the surface of such a solid. Two cases have been considered. In the first case, the porous solid is taken to be semi-infinite, while in the second case we consider a layer of the liquid-saturated porous solid resting on a smooth rigid foundation. Expressions have been obtained for the stresses at any point in the medium due to a normal load moving along the free surface of the porous solid. Detailed numerical calculations have been carried out for liquid-saturated sandstone, using the data given byFatt 9] for such a medium. These calculations show that the normal stress zz in the solid falls off approximately as 1/z with increase in the depthz below the free surface, and that the stresses in the solid and in the liquid fall off rapidly as we move away from the point directly below the moving load.