APPLICATION OF A SPECTRAL ELEMENT METHOD TO WAVE PROPAGATION IN MULTIPHASE POROUS MEDIA

In this paper, Smeulders' modification of Biot's saturated poroelastic theory is used to account for the presence of a small amount of air in the pores of an unsaturated medium. The influence of the gas phase on the compressibility of the generalized pore fluid is accounted for by a complex effective bulk modulus of the gas phase. This modification is introduced in a spectral element formulation, enabling to model transient wave propagation in layered dry, saturated and unsaturated poroelastic media. The extended application area of the method is illustrated by a numerical example.