On wave propagation characteristics in fluid saturated porous materials by a nonlocal Biot theory

A nonlocal Biot theory is developed by combing Biot theory and nonlocal elasticity theory for fluid saturated porous material. The nonlocal parameter is introduced as an independent variable for describing wave propagation characteristics in poroelastic material. A physical insight on nonlocal term demonstrates that the nonlocal term is a superposition of two effects, one is inertia force effect generated by fluctuation of porosity and the other is pore size effect inherited from nonlocal constitutive relation. Models for situations of excluding fluid nonlocal effect and including fluid nonlocal effect are proposed. Comparison with experiment confirms that model without fluid nonlocal effect is more reasonable for predicting wave characteristics in saturated porous materials. The negative dispersion is observed theoretically which agrees well with the published experimental data. Both wave velocities and quality factors as functions of frequency and nonlocal parameter are examined in practical cases. A few new physical phenomena such as backward propagation and disappearance of slow wave when exceeding critical frequency and disappearing shear wave in high frequency range, which were not predicted by Biot theory, are demonstrated.