  In this work a continuum model for high frequency poroelastic longitudinal
waves in hydrogels is presented. A viscoelastic force describing the
interaction between the polymer network and the bounded water present in such
materials is introduced. The model is tested by means of ultrasound wave speed
and attenuation measurements in polyvinylalcohol hydrogel samples. The theory
and experiments show that ultrasound attenuation decreases linearly with the
increase of the water volume fraction "{\beta}" of the hydrogel. The
introduction of the viscoelastic force between the bounded water and the
polymer network leads to a bi-phasic theory showing an ultrasonic fast wave
attenuation that can vary as a function of the frequency with a non-integer
exponent in agreement with the experimental data in literature. When {\beta}
tends to 1 (100% of interstitial water) due to the presence of bounded water in
the hydrogel, the ultrasound phase velocity acquires higher value than that of
pure water. The ultrasound speed gap at {\beta} = 1 is confirmed by the
experimental results that show that it increases in less cross-linked gel
samples that own a higher concentration of bounded water.
