Overview of Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical Constitutive Models for Saturated Cohesive Soils

The need to mathematically model and numerically simulate the effect of temperature on the hydro-mechanical behavior of soils, driven by the increased interest in energy geostructures and sundry other geothermal systems, has necessitated the development of constitutive models that can realistically simulate the thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) behavior of such materials. Many such models, possessing varying degrees of sophistication, have been developed since the 1970s. A detailed overview and critical assessment of such models has not, however, been presented. In order to address this shortcoming and to better understand the models’ relative strengths and limitations, a comprehensive overview and assessment of constitutive models that have been developed to simulate the THM behavior of saturated cohesive soils is presented in this paper.