MODELLING OF MULTICOMPONENT MASS TRANSPORT IN DEFORMABLE MEDIA: APPLICATION TO DEWATERING IMPREGNATION SOAKING PROCESS

The behaviour of a linearly elastic two-phase system is investigated from the point of view of movement of the different species. In this paper, we treat liquid and solid phases as continua and use the method of volume averaging to develop macroscopic transport equations. The solution of the local scale momentum equation of the two-phase medium allows the description of strain distribution and solid phase velocity field. When the liquid phase is a binary mixture, mass transport can occur by diffusion and convective transport. These mechanisms are described without using phenomenological laws that would introduce non-natural driving forces. Notably, the velocity of the liquid phase is deduced from a volume conservation additivity law combined with the solid mass balance. The comparison between experimental and predicted internal mass fraction fields and strain distribution during dewatering impregnation soaking process validates the model.