Effects of Stress and Pore Pressure on Deformation of a Thin Crack-Like Inhomogeneity in a Poroelastic Medium

The influence of applied stresses and internal fluid pressure on deformation of a flat ellipsoidal inhomogeneity in a homogeneous poroelastic medium is studied. The inhomogeneity is filled with a porous material having a skeleton much softer than the corresponding to the surrounding medium (crack-like inclusion). The result of the calculation of stress and strain fields inside such inclusion is presented. Explicit formulas for the inclusion aspect ratio changing are obtained. They are relevant for velocities of seismic waves in porous rocks (Toksoz et al, 1976) their permeability (Gibson & Toksoz, 1990) as functions of confining and pore pressures. Results are compared with the ones available in literature.