The present paper aims at giving some general ideas concerning the micromechanical approach of the strength of a porous material. It is shown that its determination theoretically amounts to solving a nonlinear boundary value problem defined on a representative elementary volume(REV). The principle of nonlinear homogenization is illustrated based on the case of a solid phase having a Green’s strength criterion. An original refinement of the so-called secant method(based on two reference strains) is also provided. The paper also describes the main feature of the Gurson’s model which implements the principle of limit analysis on a conceptual model of hollow sphere. The last part of the paper gives some ideas concerning poromechanical couplings. The present paper aims at giving some general ideas concerning the micromechanical approach of the strength of a porous material. It is shown that its determination theoretically amounts to solving a nonlinear boundary value problem on a representative elementary volume (REV). The principle of nonlinear homogenization is illustrated based on the case of a solid phase having a Green’s strength criterion. An original refinement of the so-called secant method (based on two reference strains) is also provided. The paper also describes the main feature of the Gurson’s model which implements the principle of limit analysis on a conceptual model of hollow sphere. The last part of the paper or even some ideas concerning poromechanical couplings.