Plane waves mitigation in saturated porous media using optimal periodic wave barriers

Ground vibrations induced by underground transportation, human activities, and earthquakes can damage civil infrastructures. The damage can be more pronounced in saturated soils common in many parts of the world. This paper investigates the optimal design of wave barriers in the fluid-saturated porous media to mitigate body waves using the Bloch-Floquet theory. The primary purpose is to find the configuration of the optimal barriers that provide wide bandgaps for plane waves. Two objective functions are considered by adopting the Genetic Algorithm (GA): maximizing the bandgap width and the relative bandgap at each filling fraction (FR) in a unit cell representing the infinite lattice. The optimal barrier configuration obtained from infinite periodic lattice is subsequently arranged in a more practical finite lattice arrangement. The examination of the optimal finite lattice in both time and frequency domains confirms the obtained bandgaps for the infinite lattice and demonstrates their efficacies in attenuating damaging ground vibrations. Especially, the time domain analyses show that the optimal configurations perform better for S-waves than the P-waves. (c) 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This paper investigates the optimal design of wave barriers in fluid-saturated porous media to mitigate body waves. Two objective functions are considered: maximizing the bandgap width and the relative bandgap. The results show that the obtained optimal barrier configuration effectively attenuates damaging ground vibrations.