The effect of fluid streams in porous media on acoustic compression wave propagation, transmission, and reflection

In geomechanics, a relevant role is played by coupling phenomena between compressible fluid seepage flow and deformation of the solid matrix. The behavior of complex porous materials can be greatly influenced by such coupling phenomena. A satisfactorily theoretical framework for their description is not yet completely attained. In this paper, we discuss how the model developed in dell’Isola et al. (Int J Solids Struct 46:3150–3164, 2009) can describe how underground flows or, more generally, confined streams of fluid in deformable porous matrices affect compression wave propagation and their reflection and transmission at a solid-material discontinuity surface. Further work will investigate the effect of stream flow in porous media on shear waves, generalizing what done in Djeran Maigre and Kuznetsov (Comptes Rendus Mécanique 336(1–2):102–107, 2008) for shear waves in one-constituent orthotropic two-layered plates. The presented treatment shows that the presence of fluid streams considerably affect reflection and transmission phenomena in porous media.