Transverse wave at a plane interface between isotropic elastic and unsaturated porous elastic solid half-spaces

Abstract

Based on the poroelasticity theory, this article investigates the reflection and transmission characteristics of an incident plane transverse wave at a plane interface between an isotropic elastic half-space and an unsaturated poroelastic solid half-space. For this purpose, the effect of the saturation degree and frequency on the properties of the four bulk waves in unsaturated porous medium, i.e., three longitudinal waves and one transverse wave, are discussed at first. Two general cases of mode conversion are considered: (i) The initial transverse wave is incident from an unsaturated poroelastic half-space to the interface, and (ii) the initial transverse wave is incident from an elastic solid half-space to the interface. The expressions for the partition of energy at the interface during transmission and reflection process of waves are presented in explicit forms. At last, numerical computations are performed for these two cases and the results obtained are depicted, respectively. The variation of the amplitude ratios and energy ratios with the saturation degree and incident angle is illustrated in detail. It is also verified that, at the interface, the sum of energy ratios is approximately equal to unity as expected.