Velocity and attenuation of compressional waves in patchy saturated geomaterials

Wave velocity and attenuation are among the most important attributes of stress waves that propagate through geomaterials. Utilizing these attributes, it is possible to acquire useful information about porous geomaterials such as soil and rock and also the fluids that saturate the pores of geomaterials. The key point in order to gain these informations is to establish an accurate link between field measurements of wave attributes and physical properties of geomaterials’ skeleton and pore fluid. The pore fluids and their inhomogeneous distribution fluid are among factors that affect wave velocity and attenuation to a considerable extent. Patchy saturation of pores which occurs on the scale larger than grians size but smaller than wavelength is one of the reasons that causes inhomogeneity in pore fluid distirbution. The influence of such inhomogeneity is studied in present paper. Two different attenuation mechanisms including relative movement of fluid with respect to solid phase and also attenuation caused by grain to grain contact are implemented to fully assess wave attenuation. It is observed that the former attenuation is more dominant at higher frequencies compared to the latter attenuation.