A multicomponent flow model in deformable porous media

We propose a model for multicomponent flow of immiscible fluids in a deformable porous medium accounting for capillary hysteresis. Oil, water, and air in the soil pores offer a typical example of a real situation occurring in practice. We state the problem within the formalism of continuum mechanics as a slow diffusion process in Lagrange coordinates. The balance laws for volumes, masses, and momentum lead to a degenerate parabolic PDE system. In the special case of a rigid solid matrix material and three fluid components, we prove under further technical assumptions that the system is mathematically well posed in a small neighborhood of an equilibrium.