These proceedings represent the latest advances in the mechanics of porous materials, known as poromechanics. The porous materials considered are solids containing voids that are impregnated with fluid. The focus is on the mechanical interactions of the inhomogeneous solid with the single- or multi-phase fluid under the loading of mechanical force, fluid pressure, thermal, chemical, and magnetic fields. The response time can be in static, diffusional, and dynamic ranges. The length scale can start from nano, to micro, macro, and up to field scales. Its application covers many branches of science and engineering, including geophysics, geomechanics, composite materials, biomechanics, acoustics, seismicity, civil, mechanical, environmental, and petroleum engineering. The approaches taken include analytical, computational, and experimental. To honor the pioneering contributions of Maurice A. Biot (1905-1985) to poromechanics, the Biot Conference on Poromechanics was convened for the first time in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium in 1998. The success of the first conference led to the 2nd Biot Conference held in Grenoble, France in 2002. To celebrate the centennial birthday of Biot (May 25, 2005), the 3rd Biot Conference on Poromechanics was held at the University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, U.S.A., on May 24-27, 2005.

This book treats the mechanics of porous materials infiltrated with a fluid (poromechanics), focussing on its linear theory (poroelasticity). Porous materials from inanimate bodies such as sand, soil and rock, living bodies such as plant tissue, animal flesh, or man-made materials can look very different due to their different origins, but as readers will see, the underlying physical principles governing their mechanical behaviors can be the same, making this work relevant not only to engineers but also to scientists across other scientific disciplines. Readers will find discussions of physical phenomena including soil consolidation, land subsidence, slope stability, borehole failure, hydraulic fracturing, water wave and seabed interaction, earthquake aftershock, fluid injection induced seismicity and heat induced pore pressure spalling as well as discussions of seismoelectric and seismoelectromagnetic effects. The work also explores the biomechanics of cartilage, bone and blood vessels. Chapters present theory using an intuitive, phenomenological approach at the bulk continuum level, and a thermodynamics-based variational energy approach at the micromechanical level. The physical mechanisms covered extend from the quasi-static theory of poroelasticity to poroelastodynamics, poroviscoelasticity, porothermoelasticity, and porochemoelasticity. Closed form analytical solutions are derived in details. This book provides an excellent introduction to linear poroelasticity and is especially relevant to those involved in civil engineering, petroleum and reservoir engineering, rock mechanics, hydrology, geophysics, and biomechanics.

Based on the Biot conference, named after Maurice Biot and held at Columbia University, this book contains over 170 original papers on different phases of poromechanics in many materials from soils and minerals to human bone. It covers testing and modeling.

This volume is devoted to an actual topic which is the focus world-wide of various research groups. It contains contributions describing the material behavior on different scales, new existence and uniqueness theorems, the formulation of constitutive equations for advanced materials. The main emphasis of the contributions is directed on the following items - Modelling and simulation of natural and artificial materials with significant microstructure, - Generalized continua as a result of multi-scale models, - Multi-field actions on materials resulting in generalized material models, - Theories including higher gradients, and - Comparison with discrete modelling approaches

Quantitative ultrasound (QUS) of bone is a relatively recent research field. The research community is steadily growing, with interdisciplinary branches in acoustics, medical imaging, biomechanics, biomedical engineering, applied mathematics, bone biology and clinical sciences, resulting in significant achievements in new ultrasound technologies to measure bone, as well as models to elucidate the interaction and the propagation of ultrasonic wave in complex bone structures. Hundreds of articles published in specialists journals are accessible from the Web and from electronic libraries. However, no compilation and synthesis of the most recent and significant research exist. The only book on QUS of bone has been published in 1999 at a time when the propagation mechanisms of ultrasound in bone were still largely unknown and the technology was immature. The research community has now reached a critical size, special sessions are organized in major international meetings (e.g., at the World Congress of Biomechanics, the annual meetings of the Acoustical Society of America, International Bone Densitometry Workshop, etc...). Consequently, the time has come for a completely up to date, comprehensive review of the topic. The book will offer the most recent experimental results and theoretical concepts developed so far and is intended for researchers, graduate or undergraduate students, engineers, and clinicians who are involved in the field. The central part of the book covers the physics of ultrasound propagation in bone. Our goal is to give the reader an extensive view of the mathematical and numerical models as an aid to understand the QUS potential and the types of variables that can be determined by QUS in order to characterize bone strength. The propagation of sound in bone is still subject of intensive research. Different models have been proposed (for example, the Biot theory of poroelasticity and the theory of scattering have been used to describe wave propagation in cancellous bone, whereas propagation in cortical bone falls in the scope of guided waves theories). An extensive review of the models has not been published so far. We intend in this book to present in details the models that are used to solve the direct problem and strategies that are currently developed to address the inverse problem. This will include analytical theories and numerical approaches that have grown exponentially in recent years. Most recent experimental findings and technological developments will also be comprehensively reviewed.

This monograph is devoted to problems of propagation and stability of linear and nonlinear waves in continuous media with complex structure. It considers the different media, such as solid with cavities, preliminary deformed disperse medium, solid with porosity filled by the electrically conductive and non-conductive liquid, magnetoelastic, piezo-semiconductors, crystals with dislocations, composites with inclusions, an electrically conductive asymmetrical liquid, a mixture of gas with a drop liquid. The book also considers the propagation of a laser beam through a two-level medium. The presented results are based on methods of evolution and modulation equations that were developed by the authors. The book is intended for scientific and technical researchers, students and post-graduate students specializing in mechanics of continuous media, physical acoustics, and physics of the solid state.

The EURO-C conference series (Split 1984, Zell am See 1990, Innsbruck 1994, Badgastein 1998, St Johann im Pongau 2003, Mayrhofen 2006, Schladming 2010, St Anton am Alberg 2014) brings together researchers and practising engineers concerned with theoretical, algorithmic and validation aspects associated with computational simulations of concrete and

This book on biopolymers offers a comprehensive source for biomaterial professionals. It covers all elementary topics related to the properties of biopolymers, the production, and processing of biopolymers, applications of biopolymers, examples of biopolymers, and the future of biopolymers. Edited by experts in the field, the book highlights international professionals’ longstanding experiences and addresses the requirements of practitioners and newcomers in this field in finding a solution to their problems. The book brings together several natural polymers, their extraction/production, and physio-chemical features. The topics covered in this book are biopolymers from renewable sources, marine prokaryotes, soy protein and humus oils, biopolymer recycling, chemical modifications, and specific properties. The book also focuses on the potential and diverse applications of biogenic and bio-derived polymers. The content includes industrial applications of natural polymeric molecules and applications in key areas such as material, biomedical, sensing, packaging, biomedicine, and biotechnology, and tissue engineering applications are discussed in detail. The objective of this book is to fill the gap between the researchers working in the laboratory to cutting-edge technological applications in related industries. This book will be a very valuable reference material for graduates and post-graduate students, academic researchers, professionals, research scholars, and scientists, and for anyone who has a flavor for doing biomaterial research. The books are designed to serve as a bridge between undergraduate textbooks in biochemistry and professional literature. The book provides universal perspectives for an emerging field where classical polymer science blends with molecular biology with highlights on recent advances.

Investigations of multi-physical processes in geomaterials have gained increasing attention due to the ongoing interest in solving complex geoenvironmental problems. This book provides a comprehensive exposition of the classical theory of thermo-poroelasticity, complemented by complete examples to problems in thermo-poromechanics that are used to validate computational results from multi-physics codes used in practice. The methodologies offer an insight into real-life problems related to modern environmental geosciences, including nuclear waste management, geologic sequestration of greenhouse gases to mitigate climate change, and the impact of energy resources recovery on groundwater resources. A strong focus is placed on analytical approaches to benchmark the accuracy of the computational approaches that are ultimately used in real-life problems. The extensive coverage of both theory and applications in thermo-poroelasticity and geomechanics provides a unified presentation of the topics, making this an accessible and invaluable resource for researchers, students or practitioners in the field.

The emphasis in Rock Mechanics for Resources, Energy and Environment is on the application of rock mechanics to the extraction of natural resources, securing energy supplies and protecting the environment surrounding rock that is subject to engineering activities. The book will be of interest to rock mechanics researchers as well as to professionals who are involved in the various branches of rock engineering.