Stress field near the tip of a crack in a poroelastic transversely anisotropic saturated rock

Closed-form solutions are obtained for the singular stress and displacement fields at the tip of a single crack in an infinite poroelastic transversely anisotropic saturated medium. Three different scenarios are considered: dry medium (no pore pressures), undrained loading (no dissipation of excess pore pressures), and drained loading (all excess pore pressures have dissipated). The results show that the stresses around the tip of a pressurized crack in a saturated medium with drained loading are smaller than those produced when the medium is dry. Undrained loading reduces the effective stresses at the tip while it increases the excess pore pressures.