Abstract of the paper ``Effective medium theory for partially saturated
porous solids'' with Lewis Thigpen
In the theory of elastic composites, one may construct an effective medium
theory by choosing the effective moduli so the forward scattering from isolated elastic inclusions vanishes on average. In the theory of partially saturated
porous media, the analogous problem requires knowledge of the multipole
scattering coefficients for elastic scattering from isolated inhomogeneities
in a fluid-saturated porous medium. Using Biot's equations of poroelsticity,
these coefficients for single-scattering from spherical inhomogeneities have
been calculated. When these coefficients are used to construct an effective
medium theory, the resulting formula for the effective density and bulk
modulus of the composite (liquid/gas) fluid recover Wood's well-known results.
Equations for wave propagation through partially saturated porous media
with the coefficients determined by the effective medium results predict wave
speeds agreeing with experiment in the seismological frequency range.
Electronic copies of this paper are not available.