Water wave driven seepage in sediment and parameter inversion based on pore pressure data

Abstract

Water wave over a porous sea bottom drives a seepage flux into and out of the sediment. The volume of fluid exchange per wave cycle and per wave length may be tied to the mass transfer rate of contaminant in sediment. In the first part of the paper, the analytical solution of seepage flux is presented based on the Biot theory of poroelasticity. Parameter effect on the seepage flux as well as on the pore pressure is examined. In the second part, empirical relationships are introduced to reduce the data requirement of the model to two parameters: the porosity and the degree of saturation. With the existence of a multi-sensor piezometer known as 'MPAS', the pore pressure data in the sediment can be collected. Utilizing the empirical relations, parameter inversion can be achieved based on pore pressure data alone.