Abstract: Based on the theory of porous media and viscoelasticity, the behavior of Rayleigh waves in an incompressible liquid saturated viscoelastic porous hal f space is investigated. Under the assumptions of microscopic incompressibility o f solid and fluid phases and the solid skeleton behaving as viscoelastic one and infinitesimal deformation, an analytical dispersion relation is obtained by usi ng Helmholtz decomposition. Influences of the material parameters on the phase v elocities and attenuation of Rayleigh waves are analyzed numerically for the sat urated standard linear viscoelastic porous medium with both permeable and imperm eable surfaces. It is shown that the influence of the viscosity of the solid ske leton is remarkable, and it depends on the conditions of the permeabilities of t he surfaces.

Key words: attenuation , dispersion, Rayleigh wave, saturated porous medium, viscoelasticity