Interactive Computer for Teaching Biot Poroelasticity Modeling in Civil Engineering

The utilization of interactive computer to teaching and learning Biot Poroelasticity Modeling is becoming an important aspect of the implementation of a more advanced approach to teaching in Civil Engineering. As part of the learning method, an interactive computer-based instructional assistance is specifically developed to help students to build, run, and analyze the output from a commercially software-COMSOL for Biot poroelasticity equations. The Biot poroelasticity equations and constitutive relation of fluid flow are input as partial differential equations into a customizable finite element software package. Several numerical simulations such as vertical effective stress and pore pressure, are presented to illustrate the validity and usefulness of the fully coupled approach, which is verified in the Biot poroelasticity modeling formulation. The assessment of instructor tools include: homework, term project, small group discussions, which assists to assess the student's degree of understanding for Biot poroelasticity theory. The survey finds that most students feel they could complete the project with minimum supervision, and have a basic understanding of variation of pore pressure as a result of the activity. On the other hand, almost of students feel that the COMSOL software aid helpful and easy to follow. (C) 2015Wiley Periodicals, Inc.