An unconditionally stable explicit and precise multiple timescale finite element modeling scheme for the fully coupled hydro-mechanical analysis of saturated poroelastic media

An unconditionally stable, fully explicit and highly precise multiple timescale finite element modeling scheme is described for a fully coupled hydro-mechanical (FCHM) analysis of saturated poroelastic media. The finite element method (FEM) is used for the discretization of the FCHM differential equation in the space domain. Direct integration is performed based on the precise time step integration method (PTSIM) for the time derivatives. Two configurations for the proposed scheme are constructed (abbreviated as PTSIM-f1 and f2, respectively). The stability and convergence of the PTSIM-f1 and f2 are proved using a matrix-based spectral analysis in the time domain. It is demonstrated that the explicit scheme proposed in this paper is unconditionally stable and independent of the time-step size. The algorithmic error estimation results indicate that the numerical modeling performed using PTSIM-f1 and -f2 in the time domain match the computer precision. Theoretically, the algorithmic error is caused by only the mesh discretization. Therefore, the proposed modeling scheme is a semi-analytical scheme. The applicability and accuracy of the proposed scheme are examined using sample calculations. By comparing with the analytical solutions, it is indicated that the modeling results have significant advantages over the standard FEM in terms of precision and computational efficiency for large timescales. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.