already at hand so that only the interaction has to be taken into account. This type of solution procedure is extensively investigated for the dynamic case by Markert et al. (2010) and, as already mentioned, by Park and Felippa (1983), Park (1983), and Zienkiewicz et al. (1988). A splitting procedure will be used in Section 5.5 both for the dynamic case and consolidation allowing for same interpolation for both u and p. Partitioned solutions are quite common in consolidation and have been extensively treated in Lewis and Schrefler (1998). From the investigation of the iteration convergence within a time step, Turska and Schrefler (1993) found the existence of a lower limit for Δt/h2 which means that it is not always possible to decrease Δt without also decreasing the mesh size h. Such a limit was also found by Murthy et al. (1989) for Poisson‐type equations and by Rank et al. (1983) for transient finite element analyses by invoking the discrete maximum principle.
3.2.4.3 The Consolidation Equation
In the standard treatment of consolidation equation (see, for instance, Lewis and Schrefler 1998), the acceleration terms are generally omitted a priori. However, as explained above, there is no disadvantage in writing the full dynamic formulation for solving such a problem. The procedure simply reduces the multiplier of the mass matrix M to a negligible value without influencing in any way the numerical stability, provided, of course, that an implicit integration scheme is used.
3.2.4.4 Static Problems – Undrained and Fully Drained Behavior
Steady state (static) conditions will only be reached under the extremes of undrained or fully drained behavior. This can be deduced by rewriting the two, discrete, governing Equations (3.23) and (3.28) omitting terms involving time derivatives. The equations now become:
and
with the effective stresses given by (3.27) and are defined incrementally as
First, we observe that the equations are uncoupled and that the second of these, i.e. (3.56) can be solved independently of the first for the water pressures. Indeed, in this solution, the negative pressure zones and, hence, the partially saturated regions can be readily determined following the procedures outlined in the previous chapter.
With
(3.58)
the first Equation (3.55) coupled with the appropriate constitutive law (3.57) can be solved once the history of the load applied has been specified.
The solution so obtained is, of course, the well‐known, drained, behavior.
The case of undrained behavior is somewhat more complex. We note that with k = 0, i.e. with totally impermeable behavior
(3.59)
But on re‐examining Equation (3.28), we find that it becomes
(3.60)
which, on integration, establishes a unique relationship between
assuming that the initial condition of
Equation (3.61) now has to be solved together with (3.55). If S = 0, i.e. no compressibility is admitted, then we have the problem already discussed in the previous Section 3.2.3 in which only certain
Solving (3.61) for