Based on a report prepared for the Mechanics of Materials Branch, CODE 6386, United States Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375, on Co-Op Job Order 63-5596-E4, Shock Wave Propagation in Gassy Sediments, 1996.
In this article we will survey some of the methodology that has been developed in order to study the problem of wave propagation in soils or sediments; specifically, we are interested in the behavior of explosion induced shock waves propagating in partially saturated soils or sediments. Because waves in soils may be induced by many type of sources (e.g., earthquakes, machinery, explosions) the topic at hand has a long history and occupies a central position in the broad subject of soil dynamics; these different sources of propagating waves in soils must often be treated in different ways. In particular for determining the plastic deformations of a soil, or partially saturated sediment, which are caused by an...