Energy flux characteristics of seismic waves at the interface between soil layers with different saturations

Abstract

Based on the multiphase poroelasticity theory describing the propagation of waves in the unsaturated fluid-saturated porous medium, the reflection and transmission coefficients of the seismic waves at the interface between soil layers with different saturations are obtained. Our unsaturated model consists of a deformable skeleton in which two compressible and viscous fluids (i.e., water and gas) flow in the interstices. Three compressional waves (i.e., P1, P2, and P3 waves) and one shear (i.e., S wave) wave exist in the unsaturated soils. The expressions for the energy ratios of the various reflected and transmitted waves at the interface during the transmission and reflection processes are presented in explicit forms accordingly. At last, numerical computations are performed and the results obtained are respectively depicted graphically. The variation of the energy ratios with the incident angle, wave frequency and saturation degrees of the upper and lower soil layers is illustrated in detail. The calculation results show that the allocation of incident seismic waves at the interface is influenced not only by the angle and frequency of the incident seismic waves, but also by the saturations of the upper and lower soil layers. It is also verified that, at the interface, the sum of energy ratios of the reflected and transmitted waves is approximately equal to unity as was expected. This study is of importance to several fields such as geotechnical engineering, seismology, and geophysics.