Space-time analysis for the container problem

Abstract

The container problem describes the behaviour of elastic porous media in a rectangular container, which is completely saturated by an ideal incompressible liquid. By time the liquid extrudes on the surface of the container while the stress resulting from a given top load acts on the shrinking elastic solid due to its compression. The analysis bases on a space time potential that contains a linear elastic term, a darcy flow term, and a boundary load term. The variation of the potential results in a space-time principle. Its minimum preserves approximately equilibrium over space and time.