Poroelastic acoustic medium in frequency domain

Abaqus/Standard provides a capability for a poroelastic acoustic coupled stress-fluid pore pressure steady-state dynamic analysis.

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The frequency domain theory of the poroelastic acoustic medium was originated by Biot (1956). Johnson et al. (1987), followed later by other researchers, presented a theory for deriving effective density and the bulk modulus of the saturating fluid. Atalla and coworkers provided a finite element implementation in Atalla et al. (1998), Debergue et al. (1999), and Atalla et al. (2001). These developments are effectively summarized in Allard and Atalla (2009). Rumpler (2012) is a more recent publication.

Stiffness properties

Consider a homogeneous isotropic linear poroelastic material with porosity ϕ defined as the ratio of void volume to the whole volume of the sample. The void volume is fully saturated with fluid; the fluid is initially at rest. The Biot (1956) stress-strain constitutive relations are

(1)σijs=[(P2G)Θs+QΘf]δij+2Gεijs,
(2)σijf=ϕpδij=[QΘs+RΘf]δij.

Here

σijs
is the structural stress,
σijf
is the fluid stress,
p
is the fluid pore pressure,
εijs
is the structural strain,
Θs=εiis
is the structural dilatation,
Θf
is the fluid dilatation, and
δij
is the Kronecker delta.
P, G, Q, and R are the material coefficients.

Three static physical experiments determine the P, G, Q, and R values, as outlined in Allard and Atalla (2009).

The first experiment is a pure shear test, Θs=Θf=0 and σijs=2Gεijs,σijf=0 (fluid cannot resist shear in statics), so G is the shear modulus of the material determined in this experiment.

In the second experiment the material is wrapped in a flexible membrane jacket that is impervious to the fluid and is subjected to an external hydrostatic pressure p2 while zero pressure is maintained inside (σijf=0).

From this experiment the skeleton "in vacuo" bulk modulus is determined as Kb=p2/Θ2s, where Θ2s is the structural dilatation measured in the experiment. The constitutive relations become

(3)p2=(P43G)Θ2s+QΘ2f,
(4)0=QΘ2s+RΘ2f.

The porosity changes during this experiment as far as the material is compressed. For Abaqus you indirectly specify the G and Kb through the elastic skeleton Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio.

In the third experiment the unwrapped material sample is placed inside fluid under pressure p3; therefore, the structural stress tensor is

σijs=p3(1ϕ)δij.

The constitutive equations are rewritten as

(5)p3(1ϕ)δij=(P43G)Θ3s+QΘ3f,
(6)ϕp3=QΘ3s+RΘ3f.

The skeleton material bulk modulus is then Ks=p3/Θ3s , and the fluid bulk modulus is Kf=p3/Θ3f . There is no change in porosity in this experiment, and the dilatation of the sample is the same as if the material is not porous. For steady-state dynamic analyses you specify the real-valued Ks directly, whereas the generally complex Kf is specified either directly in the Biot-Atalla material model or is computed based on other parameters in the Biot-Johnson model.

From Equation 6

(7)ϕ=QΘ3sp3RΘ3fp3=QKs+RKf.

From Equation 5

(8)1ϕ=(P43G)Θ3sp3+Q(Θ3fp3)=(P43G)Ks+QKf.

From Equation 4 Θ2f=QRΘ2s. Divide Equation 3 by (p2) to obtain

(9)1=(P43G)(Θ2sp2)Q2R(Θ2sp2)=(P43GQ2R)Kb.

From Equation 7, Equation 8, and Equation 9 the three elastic coefficients P, Q, and R are obtained as

P=(1ϕ)[1ϕKbKs]Ks+ϕKsKfKb1ϕKbKs+ϕKsKf+43G,
Q=[1ϕKbKs]ϕKs1ϕKbKs+ϕKsKf,
R=ϕ2Ks1ϕKbKs+ϕKsKf.

For a typical poroelastic acoustic material with KbKs and KfKs, approximately R=ϕKf,Q=(1ϕ)Kf,P2G=λ+(1ϕ)2ϕKf, where λ is Lame coefficient.

In a steady-state dynamic analysis the Kf is usually complex and frequency dependent; therefore, other special physical experiments are required to determine Kf while Kb, Ks, and G are purely real and frequency independent. Thus, the P, Q, and R are also generally complex and frequency dependent. The structural damping is accounted for by using only the structural stiffness part.

Inertial and damping dynamic properties and equilibrium equations

Instead of the usual structural-only equilibrium equations in the absence of body forces and damping

σij,js=ρui¨,

Biot (1956) introduced

(10)σij,js=ρ11u¨is+ρ12u¨if+b˜(u˙isu˙if),
(11)σij,jf=ρ12u¨is+ρ22u¨ifb˜(u˙isu˙if).

In this section the tilde indicates that the physical property is complex and frequency dependent. The uis and uif are solid and fluid macroscopic displacements; that is, the average volume displacements per unit cross-section area. The b˜ terms represent viscous damping. The densities ρ11,ρ22, and ρ12 are related to the skeleton density ρs and fluid density ρf by the relations (see Allard and Atalla (2009),

(12)ρ11=ρsρ12,ρ22=ϕρfρ12.  

The skeleton density ρs is (1ϕ) times the skeleton material density. All these densities do not depend on frequency.

For harmonic motion ejωt,

j
is the imaginary unit,
ω
is the frequency,
t
is the time;
Atalla et al. (1998) define

(13)ρ˜11=ρ11+b˜jω,
(14)ρ˜22=ρ22+b˜jω,
(15)ρ˜12=ρ12b˜jω,

so Equation 10 and Equation 11 become

(16)σij,js+ω2ρ˜11uis+ω2ρ˜12uif=0,
(17)ϕp,i+ω2ρ˜12uis+ω2ρ˜22uif=0.

From Equation 17

(18)uif=ϕp,iω2ρ˜22ρ˜12ρ˜22uis.

With Equation 18, Equation 16 becomes

(19)σij,js+ω2ρ˜uis+ϕρ˜12ρ˜22p,i=0,
(20)ρ˜=ρ˜11(ρ˜12)2ρ˜22.

To obtain a formulation with just structural displacements, uis, and fluid pore pressure, p, as primary variables, the fluid displacement, uif, needs to be eliminated, but it is still present in the constitutive equations Equation 1 and Equation 2 through fluid dilatation Θf=uk,kf:

(21)σijs=[(P˜2G˜)uk,ks+Q˜uk,kf]δij+2G˜εijs,
(22)σijf=ϕpδij=[Q˜uk,ks+R˜uk,kf]δij.

In Equation 21 and Equation 22 the tildes are properly used for clarity; the tildes are not shown in Equation 1 and Equation 2. This leads to

(23)σijs=(P˜2G˜Q˜2R˜)uk,ksδij+2G˜εijsϕQ˜R˜pδij.

Defining

σ^ijs=(P˜2G˜Q˜2R˜)uk,ksδij+2G˜εijs

leads to

σijs=σ^ijsϕQ˜R˜pδij.

Substituting this into Equation 19 gives

(24)σ^ij,js+ω2ρ˜uis+γ˜p,i=0,
γ˜=ϕ(ρ˜12ρ˜22Q˜R˜).

It can be verified that

σ^ijs=(Kb23G)uk,ksδij+2Gεijs,
which is the classical constitutive equation for an elastic solid (with no tildes).

From Equation 18

ui,if=ϕΔpω2ρ˜22ρ˜11ρ˜22Θs,Δp=p,ii.

Combining it with Equation 22 produces

(25)Δp+ρ˜22R˜ω2pρ˜22ϕ2γ˜ω2Θs=0.

Without the coupling γ˜ terms, Equation 24 and Equation 25 are classical structural and fluid equilibrium equations. The coupling is volumetric.

According to Johnson et al. (1987), the ρ˜22 is an effective fluid density in a rigid skeleton and can be represented as

(26)ρ˜22=ρfϕα˜,

where the α˜ is frequency-dependent dynamic tortuosity. It is related to γ˜:

α˜=ρ˜22ϕρf=ρ˜22ρ22+ρ12=ρ˜22ρ˜22+ρ˜12,

(use Equation 12, Equation 14, and Equation 15)

ϕα˜=ϕ(1+ρ˜12ρ˜22)=ϕ(ρ˜12ρ˜22Q˜R˜)+ϕ(1+Q˜R˜)=γ˜+ϕ(1+Q˜R˜).

The limit ω+ relation ρ22=ρfϕα, where α1 is the real-valued tortuosity at infinite frequency, is also valid. The ρf,ϕ, and α are specified by the user. Knowing the ρ˜22 and ρ22, the b˜ can be determined from Equation 14. With Equation 12, all coefficients for Equation 13, Equation 14, and Equation 15 are now determined.

In the Biot-Atalla material model the ρ˜22 is a user-defined frequency-dependent complex density of acoustic medium, so the dynamic tortuosity α˜ can be obtained using Equation 26. The acoustic medium complex bulk modulus K˜f is similarly a user-defined property.

In the Biot-Johnson material model the α˜ and K˜f are computed as

α˜(ω)=α[1+σϕjωρfαGJ(ω)],GJ(ω)=(1+4jωα2ηρfσ2Λ2ϕ2)12,
K˜f(ω)=γP0γ(γ1)[α(ω)]1,α(ω)=1+8ηjωPrΛ2ρf[1+jωPrΛ2ρf16η]12.

The following user-defined material properties are used:

σ
is the static flow resistivity,
Λ
is the viscous characteristic length,
Λ
is the thermal characteristic length,
η
is the fluid dynamic viscosity,
P0
is the ambient fluid pressure,
γ
is the heat capacity ratio, the dimensionless ratio of the specific heat per unit mass at constant pressure over the specific heat per unit mass at constant volume, and
Pr
is the Prandtl number, the dimensionless ratio of viscous diffusion rate over thermal diffusion rate.
See Allard and Atalla (2009) for details.

The description above provides all required coefficients for the finite element weak integral (u,p) formulation. Such a formulation, together with the compatibility boundary conditions (poroelastic-to-poroelastic, poroelastic-to-elastic, poroelastic-to-acoustic media), is presented in Atalla et al. (2001).