On the response of a poro-elastic bed to water waves

Abstract

The problem of the response of a porous elastic bed to water waves is treated analytically on the basis of the three-dimensional consolidation theory of Biot (1941). Exact solutions for the pore-water pressure and the displacements of the porous medium are obtained in closed form for the case of waves propagating over the poro-elastic bed. The theoretical results indicate that the bed response to waves is strongly dependent on the permeabilitykand the stiffness ratioG/K’, whereGis the shear modulus of the porous medium andK’is the apparent bulk modulus of elasticity of the pore fluid. The earlier solutions for pore-water pressure by various authors are given as the limiting cases of the present solution. For the limitsG/K′→ 0 ork→ ∞, the present solution for pressure approaches the solution of the Laplace equation by Putnam (1949). For the limitG/K′→ ∞, the present solution approaches the solution of the heat conduction equation by Nakamuraet al.(1973) and Moshagen & Tørum (1975).The theoretical results are compared with wave tank experimental data on pore-water pressure in coarse and fine sand beds which contain small amounts of air. Good agreement between theory and experiment is obtained.