Solution verification procedures for modeling and simulation of fully coupled porous media: static and dynamic behavior

Numerical prediction of dynamic behavior of fully coupled saturated porous media is of great importance in many engineering problems. Specifically, static and dynamic response of soils – porous media with pores filled with fluid, such as air, water, etc. – can only be modeled properly using fully coupled approaches. Modeling and simulation of static and dynamic behavior of soils require significant Verification and Validation (V&V) procedures in order to build credibility and increase confidence in numerical results. By definition, Verification is essentially a mathematics issue and it provides evidence that the model is solved correctly, while Validation, being a physics issue, provides evidence that the right model is solved. This paper focuses on Verification procedure for fully coupled modeling and simulation of porous media. Therefore, a complete Solution Verification suite has been developed consisting of analytical solutions for both static and dynamic problems of porous media, in time domain. Verification for fully coupled modeling and simulation of porous media has been performed through comparison of the numerical solutions with the analytical ones. Modeling and simulation is based on the so called, u–p–U formulation. Of particular interest are numerical dispersion effects which determine the level of numerical accuracy. These effects are investigated in detail, in an effort to suggest a compromise between numerical error and computational cost.