Brownian motion with radioactive decay to calculate the dynamic bulk modulus of gases saturating porous media according to Biot theory

We present a new stochastic simulation method for determining the long-wavelength effective dynamic bulk modulus of gases, such as ambient air, saturating porous media with relatively arbitrary microgeometries, i.e., simple enough to warrant Biot’s simplification that the fluid and solid motions are quasi-incompressible motions at the pore scale. The simulation method is based on the mathematical isomorphism between two different physical problems. One of them is the actual Fourier heat exchange problem between gas and solid in the context of Biot theory. The other is a diffusion-disintegration-controlled problem that considers Brownian motion of diffusing particles undergoing radioactive-type decay in the pore volume and instant decay at the pore walls. By appropriately choosing the decay time and the diffusion coefficient, the stochastic algorithm we develop to determine the average lifetime of the diffusing particles, directly gives the effective apparent modulus of the saturating fluid. We show how it leads to purely geometric stochastic constructions to determine a number of geometrical parameters. After validating the algorithm for cylindrical circular pores, its power is illustrated for the case of fibrous materials of the type used in noise control. The results agree well with a model of the effective modulus with three purely geometric parameters of the pore space: static thermal permeability divided by porosity, static thermal tortuosity, and thermal characteristic length.