Wave-induced porewater pressure in a seabed with inhomogeneous permeability

We have developed an analytical treatment for the wave-induced response of a seabed with inhomogeneous permeability, by employing the boundary layer approximation. By assuming an exponential function for vertically distributed permeability, the inhomogeneous consolidation equation was formulated as Bessel's differential equation. Subsequently, we proposed some representative quantities for examining the effects of inhomogeneity of permeability. The main effects of inhomogeneity are that the boundary layer becomes thinner and the phase delay in the direction of depth becomes larger as the inhomogeneity becomes significant. In addition, it was shown that the boundary layer is properly evaluated by using the averaged permeability. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.