Elastic wave propagation and attenuation in a generalized thermoporoelastic model

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to compute the phase velocities and attenuation coefficients of coupled longitudinal waves in a generalized thermoporoelastic model and to observe the effect of porosity, frequency and thermal parameters on the phase velocities and attenuation coefficients on these waves graphically. Design/methodology/approach - The linear governing equations of a generalized thermoporoelastic model in the context of Lord and Shulman theory of generalized thermoelasticity are solved with the help of plane harmonic solution method to show the existence of one shear and three kinds of coupled longitudinal waves. Findings - The results obtained show the dependence of phase velocities and attenuation coefficients of coupled longitudinal waves on frequency, porosity, relaxation times and other material parameters. Originality/value - The problems on coupled heat-fluid flow in a saturated deformable porous medium are important in various engineering fields, for example, petroleum engineering, chemical engineering, pavement engineering and nuclear wastemanagement. Anewgeneralized thermoporoelastic model is formulated to study the wave phenomena and their dependence on various material parameters.