Finite Element Methods for the Equations of Waves in Fluid-Saturated Porous Media.

In this paper, finite element methods for the problems of wave propagation in a fluid-saturated porous medium are discussed. The medium is composed of a porous elastic solid (soil, rock, etc.) saturated by a compressible viscous fluid (oil, water, etc.), and the fluid may flow relatively to the solid. Biot's lowfrequency dynamic equations are chosen to describe the problems mentioned above, with stress-given boundary conditions, ABGs (Absorbing Boundary Conditions) on artificial boundaries and conditions on interfaces between the fluid-saturated porous medium and elastic solids. In the paper, a new kind of discrete ABCs is presented, and a discrete-time Galerkin method are utilized for obtaining approximate solutions. The numerical results show that they both are effective. Two dilatational waves (fast wave P1 and slow wave P2) and one rotational wave (S wave) are clearly visible in the figures of computational results, which coincide with theoretical analysis very well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]