Effects of clogging on ultrasonic transmission through saturated granular single and double porosity media

Abstract

The clogging caused by the deposition of suspended particles modifies in depth several mechanical parameters (permeability, porosity, bulk moduli, etc.) of porous media and influences the acoustic behaviour. Consequently, at a fixed position in the medium, changes in phase velocity and attenuation are observed in the amplitude of the temporal signal of the transmitted waves. In this work, ultrasonic techniques are presented both for detecting and measuring the clogging in a water saturated porous medium. The acoustic measurements from the clogged samples are compared with the deposition profiles obtained at the end of injection experiments. Moreover, links are established between on the one hand phase velocity and the total porosity, and on the other hand the transmitted signal energy and the variation of porosity as consequence of particle deposition.