Thermo‐Hydro‐Mechanical Coupling Response in Multilayered Transversely Isotropic Fractional Viscoelastic Saturated Media

ABSTRACT Many engineering projects in soft soil areas that involve temperature changes need to consider the consolidation and creep behavior of soils. Therefore, studying the consolidation and creep behavior of saturated media under thermo‐mechanical coupling loads is of great significance for the development of energy geotechnical engineering. This study established the governing equations for multilayered transversely isotropic (TI) thermo‐viscoelastic saturated media based on the fractional Merchant model and obtained the solution to the governing equations using the Laplace–Hankel integral transform and an extended, precise integration method. Through numerical examples, the correctness of the theory and program in this paper is verified, and it is found that the transverse isotropy of the media has a significant impact on the time‐varying curves of displacement and pore pressure. Besides, as the fractional order increases, the consolidation and creep processes will be completed faster. Furthermore, when calculating the thermo‐hydro‐mechanical (THM) response of the overlying layer, ignoring the differences between the underlying layer and the overlying layer will have an undeniable impact on the calculation of the THM response of the overlying layer.