Hygrothermoelasticity in a porous cylinder under nonlinear coupling between heat and moisture

The purpose of this study is to develop practical tools for the mechanical design of cylindrical porous media subjected to a broad gap in a hygrothermal environment. The planar axisymmetrical and transient hygrothermoelastic field in a porous hollow cylinder that is exposed to a broad gap of temperature and dissolved moisture content and is free from mechanical constraint on all surfaces is investigated considering the nonlinear coupling between heat and binary moisture and the diffusive properties of both phases of moisture. The system of hygrothermal governing equations is derived for the cylindrical case and solved to illustrate the distributions of hygrothermal-field quantities and the effect of diffusive properties on the distributions. The distribution of the resulting stress is theoretically analyzed based on the fundamental equations for hygrothermoelasticity. The safety hazard because of the analysis disregarding the nonlinear coupling underestimating the stress is illustrated. By comparing the cylinder with an infinitesimal curvature with the straight strip, the significance to consider the existence of curvature, even if it is infinitesimally small, is demonstrated qualitatively and quantitatively. Moreover, by investigating the bending moment, the necessities to consider an actual finite curvature and to perform the transient analysis are illustrated.