Wave speeds and attenuation of elastic waves in material containing cracks

Abstract

Expressions now exist from which may be calculated the propagation constants of elastic waves travelling through material containing a distribution of cracks. The cracks are randomly distributed in position and may be randomly orientated. The wavelengths involved are assumed to be large compared with the size of the cracks and with their separation distances so that the formulae, based on the mean taken over a statistical ensemble, may reasonably be used to predict the properties of a single sample. The results are valid only for small concentrations of cracks. Explicit expressions, correct to lowest order in the ratio of the crack size to a wavelength, are derived here for the overall elastic parameters and the overall wave speeds and attenuation of elastic waves in cracked materials where the mean crack is circular, and the cracks are either aligned or randomly orientated. The cracks may be empty or filled with solid or fluid material. These results are achieved on the basis of simply the static solution for an ellipsoidal inclusion under stress. The extension to different distributions of orientation or to mixtures of different types of crack is quite straightforward.