Propagation of Pore Pressure and Stress in Saturated Porous Media Based on a Darcy-Brinkman Formulation

Propagation of pore pressure and stress in water-saturated elastic porous media is theoretically investigated when considering the Darcy-Brinkman law. The wave mode, phase velocity, phase lag, damping factor, and characteristic frequency are found from the updated mathematic model. The Brinkman term describes the fluid viscous shear effects and importantly contributes to the dispersion relation and wave damping. The coincidence of the properties of Biot waves of the first and second kinds occurs at a characteristic frequency, which is remarkably influenced by the Brinkman term. A key finding is that, compared to the Darcy-Brinkman law, Darcy’s law overestimates the phase velocity, damping, and phase lag of the first wave, while underestimates the phase velocity, damping, and phase difference of the second wave. The introduction of the Darcy-Brinkman law yields an improved description of the damping of the compressional wave modes in saturated porous media.