Abstract Drying of deformable porous media is encountered in soil, paints, coatings, food, and building materials. During drying, capillary forces can displace solid particles and modify invasion thresholds, opening preferential paths for air to invade. Since drying rates are crucially dependent on liquid connectivity through the porous medium, they are affected by the drying patterns. We study the interplay between solid matrix deformation and drying patterns and rates, and the impact of pore-size heterogeneity and the confining stress in a granular material. We couple a pore-scale model of drying with a particle-scale mechanical model, to capture the two-way coupling between the evolving drying pattern and solid particle displacements. Our simulations show that for a low pore-size disorder, and low confining stress, matrix deformations are favorable and lead to preferential drying patterns which maintain high drying rates. This effect is observed throughout the drying process when the disorder is low, but disappears after breakthrough for low confining stress, indicating a different mechanism by which deformation can impact drying. These results could be significant for various industrial applications, including fabrication of advanced nano-materials, where patterned drying can be used to obtain the desired structure.

中文翻译：

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基体变形对颗粒物料干燥的影响

摘要 在土壤、油漆、涂料、食品和建筑材料中会遇到可变形多孔介质的干燥。在干燥过程中，毛细管力可以置换固体颗粒并修改侵入阈值，为空气侵入打开优先路径。由于干燥速率主要取决于通过多孔介质的液体连通性，因此它们受干燥模式的影响。我们研究了固体基质变形与干燥模式和速率之间的相互作用，以及颗粒材料中孔径异质性和围压的影响。我们将孔隙尺度的干燥模型与颗粒尺度的力学模型相结合，以捕捉不断变化的干燥模式和固体颗粒位移之间的双向耦合。我们的模拟表明，对于低孔径无序和低围压，基体变形是有利的，并导致保持高干燥速率的优先干燥模式。当无序度低时，在整个干燥过程中观察到这种效果，但在低围压下突破后消失，表明变形影响干燥的不同机制。这些结果对于各种工业应用具有重要意义，包括先进纳米材料的制造，其中图案干燥可用于获得所需的结构。