Coherent and Incoherent Scattering Mechanisms in Air-Filled Permeable Materials

Ultrasonic evaluation of porous materials can take advantage of some very specific acoustic phenomena that occur only in fluid-saturated consolidated solids of continuously connected pore structure. The most interesting feature of acoustic wave propagation in such media is the appearance of a second compressional wave, the so-called slow wave [1,2]. The slow compressional wave represents a relative motion between the fluid and the solid frame. This motion is very sensitive to the kinematic viscosity of the fluid and the dynamic permeability of the porous formation. Certain material properties such as tortuosity, permeability, porosity, and pore size, shape and surface quality are inherently connected to the porous nature of the material and can be evaluated best from the propagation properties of the slow compressional wave.