On the use of the finite element method for the modeling of acoustic scattering from one-dimensional rough fluid-poroelastic interfaces

A poroelastic finite element formulation originally derived for modeling porous absorbing material in air is adapted to the problem of acoustic scattering from a poroelastic seafloor with a one-dimensional randomly rough interface. The developed formulation is verified through calculation of the plane wave reflection coefficient for the case of a flat surface and comparison with the well known analytical solution. The scattering strengths are then obtained for two different sets of material properties and roughness parameters using a Monte Carlo approach. These numerical results are compared with those given by three analytic scattering models---perturbation theory, the Kirchhoff approximation, and the small-slope approximation---and from those calculated using two finite element formulations where the sediment is modeled as an acoustic fluid.