Over the last decade and particularly in recent years, the macroscopic
porous media theory has made decisive progress concerning the
fundamentals of the theory and the development of mathematical models in
various fields of engineering and biomechanics. This progress has
attracted some attention, and therefore conferences devoted almost
exclusively to the macrosopic porous media theory have been organized in
order to collect all findings, to present new results, and to discuss
new trends. Many important contributions have also been published in
national and international journals, which have brought the porous media
theory, in some parts, to a close. Therefore, the time seems to be ripe
to review the state of the art and to show new trends in the continuum
mechanical treatment of saturated and unsaturated capillary and
non-capillary porous solids.
This book addresses postgraduate students and scientists working in
engineering, physics, and mathematics. It provides an outline of modern
theory of porous media and shows some trends in theory and in
applications.