Effective tortuosity and different acoustic waves in porous media

Summary A simple method has been suggested to estimate the acoustic characteristics of porous structure from a hybrid model—a hybridisation of Biot's phenomenological model and the microscopic multiple-scattering theory which introduces the idea of an effective tortuosity. Without using any adjustable parameter this model may be used to provide rough estimates of the tortuosity, the fast, the shear and the slow sound speeds. The predictions are compared with observation on water-saturated glass bead samples. The author of this paper has agreed to not receive the proofs for correction.