A fixed-stress splitting method for nonlinear poroelasticity

In this paper we consider a nonlinear poroelasticity model that describes the quasi-static mechanical behaviour of a fluid-saturated porous medium whose permeability depends on the divergence of the displacement. Such nonlinear models are typically used to study biological structures like tissues, organs, cartilage and bones, which are known for a nonlinear dependence of their permeability/hydraulic conductivity on solid dilatation. We formulate (extend to the present situation) one of the most popular splitting schemes, namely the fixed-stress split method for the iterative solution of the coupled problem. The method is proven to converge linearly for sufficiently small time steps under standard assumptions. The error contraction factor then is strictly less than one, independent of the Lamé parameters, Biot and storage coefficients if the hydraulic conductivity is a strictly positive and Lipschitz-continuous function.