Wave Based Method for 2D Unsaturated Elastodynamic Soil under Harmonic Loading

Summary

The Wave Based Method (WBM), which describes field variables of a boundary value problem with weighted wave functions, is used to model a layered halfspace under harmonic loading. This 2D soil structure is investigated for partially saturated layers. According to the Berryman-Thigpen-Chin model (BTC model) the capillary effects between the water and air phases enclosed by pores are negligibly small for elastic waves in the low frequency range. The mixture of water and air is treated as one fluid, for which the material parameters used in Biot's theory for fully saturated poroelastic structures have to be computed. Within this work, the BTC model is applied to describe soil layers within a halfspace, which are not perfectly dry or fully saturated. It is presented how the degree of saturation within a partially saturated soil layer affects the system's response.

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