Diffraction of plane SV waves by a shallow circular-arc canyon in a saturated poroelastic half-space

An analytical solution for the scattering and diffraction of incident plane SV waves by a shallow circular-arc canyon in a saturated poroelastic half-space is derived by the wave function expansion method. The solution is utilized to analyze the dependence of the computed surface motions on the incident frequencies, incident angles, porosity, boundary drainage and Poisson's ratio. It is shown that, depending on the incident angles, the surface displacement amplitudes around a canyon in a dry poroelastic half-space and saturated poroelastic half-space can be very different. The surface displacement amplitudes of an undrained saturated poroelastic half-space are close to those of a drained saturated poroelastic half-space. For low porosity, the surface displacement amplitudes of a saturated poroelastic half-space are almost identical to those of a dry poroelastic half-space, and drainage condition has little influence on the surface displacement amplitudes. But for high porosity, the effect of drainage condition becomes significant, and for the same porosity, the displacement amplitudes of an undrained saturated half-space will be larger than those of a drained saturated half-space. Poisson's ratio is also an important factor affecting the surface displacement amplitudes around the canyon, both in drained and undrained conditions, but leads to larger effects for an undrained saturated half-space than for a drained saturated half-space. Large pore pressures are found around the canyon and their amplitudes depend on the incident angles and frequencies. Below the surface, the amplitudes of pore pressures are less than they are at the surface, especially for high frequencies.