Abstract: This study discusses wave propagation in perhaps the most general model of a poroelastic medium. The medium is considered as a viscoelastic, anisotropic and porous solid frame such that its pores of anisotropic permeability are filled with a viscous fluid. The anisotropy considered is of general type, and the attenuating waves in the medium are treated as the inhomogeneous waves. The complex slowness vector is resolved to define the phase velocity, homogeneous attenuation, inhomogeneous attenuation, and angle of attenuation for each of the four attenuating waves in the medium. A non-dimensional parameter measures the deviation of an inhomogeneous wave from its homogeneous version. An numerical model of a North-Sea sandstone is used to analyze the effects of the propagation direction, inhomogeneity parameter, frequency regime, anisotropy symmetry, anelasticity of the frame, and viscosity of the pore-fluid on the propagation characteristics of waves in such a medium.

Key words: attenuation, anisotropy, inhomogeneous waves, poroviscoelastic solid, phase velocity