MIXED FINITE ELEMENT FORMULATION FOR NON-ISOTHERMAL POROUS MEDIA IN DYNAMICS

We present a mixed finite element formulation for the spatial discretization in dynamic analysis of non-isothermal variably saturated porous media using different order of approximating functions for solid displacements and fluid pressures/temperature. It is known in fact that there are limitations on the approximating functions N-u and N-p for displacements and pressures if the BabuskaBrezzi convergence conditions or their equivalent [5] are to be satisfied. Although this formulation complicates the numerical implementation compared to equal order interpolation, it provides competitive advantages e.g. in speed of computation, accuracy and convergence.