| Abstract: | The problem of the propagation of longitudinal Biot waves in a porous medium saturated with a weakly compressible liquid (water) or a gas is considered theoretically. The frequency dependence of the phase velocities and damping coefficients is investigated numerically. It is shown that for a certain relationship between the parameters of the porous medium and the saturating fluid there is a “critical” frequency at which the properties of longitudinal waves of both kinds are identical. An analytical expression for this “critical” frequency is obtained. It is shown that for a gas-saturated porous medium, at a certain frequency, in both longitudinal waves the relative gas-matrix motion changes type. Assuming that the saturating-gas behavior corresponds to an adiabatic equation of state, an estimate is obtained for the threshold pore pressure necessary for the restructuring of the relative motion. The wave associated with matrix deformation is shown to have a high damping coefficient in a porous medium saturated with a weakly compressible liquid (water in the case considered) but to be only weakly damped in a gas-saturated porous medium. |
