SILENT BOUNDARY-CONDITIONS FOR WAVE-PROPAGATION IN SATURATED POROUS-MEDIA

Wave propagation both in one- and in two-dimensional saturated elastic porous media is analysed by means of a two-field finite element model with silent boundaries. An extension of the elastic 'multidirectional ' transmitting boundary to two-phase media is developed to simulate th e silent boundary condition. The theoretical assessment and the numeri cal formulation of the first-order silent boundary technique is presen ted in detail. Some examples are used to demonstrate the reliability o f the first-order method, especially for problems with plane and axisy mmetric waves having various angles of incidence. Finally, the wave pr opagation along a pile shaft is presented, to simulate a common non-de structive dynamic pile test.