The determination of the slowness vector of homogeneous plane waves propagating in an arbitrary direction in a homogeneous viscoelastic anisotropic medium is discussed. Whereas the determination of the slowness vector of an inhomogeneous plane wave requires the solution of an eigenvalue problem for a 6 x 6 complex-valued matrix, it is sufficient to solve an eigenvalue problem for a 3 x 3 complex-valued problem for homogeneous plane waves. Expressions for phase velocities and for the ratios of the lengths of attenuation and propagation vectors are derived.
Viscoelastic anisotropic media, homogeneous plane waves, phase velocity, slowness vector, polarisation vector.
The paper is available in PDF (75 kB).
SW3D
- main page of consortium Seismic Waves in Complex 3-D Structures .