Mechanical Modeling of the Shrinking and Swelling of Porous Elastic Solids

Abstract

A method of modeling the mechanism of swelling and the mechanism of shrinking in porous elastic materials is described. The method involves the introduction of fields of spherically self‐equilibrated force systems. Force systems of this type are called centers of compression or centers of dilation in classical elasticity theory. The mechanisms of swelling and of shrinking are illustrated in the case of homogeneous deformations of a body subjected to no surface tractions and no gravitational force. It is argued that further development of theories of this type must be material specific and mechanism (i.e., swelling or shrinking) specific.