E L A S T I C WAV E P R O PA G AT I O N I N A C O N T I N U O U S M E D I U M

Content
A simple example wave propagation

An elastic wave is a deformation of the body that travels throughout the

body in all directions. We can examine the deformation over a period of time
by fixing our look on just one point in space. This is the case of fixing
geophones or seismometers in the field, or Lagrangian description.

We will begin by a simple case, assuming that we have (1) an isotropic

medium, that is that the elastic properties or wave velocity, or not
directionally dependent and that (2) our medium is contiunous.
By
examining a balance of forces across an elemental volume and relating the
forces on the volume to an ideal elastic response of the volume using
Hookes Law we will derive one form of the elastic wave equation.

Let us begin by examining the balance of forces and mass (Newton's

Second Law) for a very small elemental volume. The effect of traction
forces

and additional body forces ( f ) is to generate an acceleration ( u

) per unit
volume of mass or density ( ):
ui ij , j f i ,

where the double-dot above

(1) ->To Acoustic Wave Equation

u ,the

denotes the second partial derivative

ui
).The deformation in the body is achieved by
t 2
2

with respect to time (

displacing individual particles about their central resting point. Because we

consider that the behavior is essentially elastic the particles will eventually
come to rest at their original point of rest. Displacement for each point in
space is described by a vector with a tail at that point.

u (u1 , u 2 , u 3 )

Each component of the displacement, ui depends on the location within

the body and at what stage of the wave propagation we are considering.

Density ( ) is a scalar property that depends on what point in 3-D space

we consider:

( x, x2 , x3 ) or, in other words


( x1 , x2 , x3 ) ( x )

Body forces all the forces external to the elastic medium except in the
immediate vicinity of the elemental volume. For example commonly the
effect of gravity is discarded as is the effect of the seismic source if the case
is relatively distant from the cause, so that the homogeneous (partial
differential) equation for motion states that the acceleration a particle of
rock undergoes while under the influence of traction forces is proportional
to the stress gradients across its surface, and that the acceleration is
greater for smaller volume densities, i.e.:

ui

ij i1 i 2 i 3

(for j=1,2,3)
x j
x1
x2
x3

Each basis vector component of the acceleration as for example i 1 is

expressed as

11 12 13
x1
u1 x1

x2
x3
x1
i ij , j
Finally, in complete indicial notation: u

Remember from the chapter on strain that the infinitesimal deformation

at each point depends on the gradients in the displacement field:
1
(u p , q uq , p )
2
u
1 u
( p q)
2 xq x p

e pq

Empirically, it has been shown that for small strains ( 10 5 ), and over
short periods of time (Lay , Wallace) rocks behave as ideal elastic solids.
The most general form of Hookes Law for an ideal elastic solid is:
ij cijpq e pq

(4)

where cijpq is a fourth-order tensor containing de 34=81 elastic constants or

matrix components that define the elastic properties of the material in the
an anisotropic and inhomogeneous medium. Each component cijpq or elastic
constant has dimensions of pressure. Each component cijpq is independent

of the strain eij and for this reason is called a constant although elastic
constants vary througout space as a function of position.
We can reduce the number of constants to two in various steps. First
we can reduce the number to 36 because it follows that since ij y eij are
symmetric:
c jipq cijpq and cijqp cijpq .

Through thermodynamic considerations we can demonstrate that

c pqij cijpq

so that even in the case of anisotropy the number of constants can be

reduced to 21. However, it is possible to often solve many geological
problems by considering that rocks have isotropic elastic properties. The
assumption of isotropy reduces the number of independent elastic constants
to just 2. In summary for an isotropic, continuous medium we can reduce
the elastic constant tensor to the following:
cijpq ij pq ( ip jq iq jp )

(5)

where y are known as the Lam elastic parameters or properties. Lam

parameters y can be expressed in terms of other familiar elastic
parameters such as Youngs modulus E and Poissons ratio :

E
E
;
(1 )(1 2 )
2(1 )

Other elastic parameters can also be expressed in terms of y . For

example, incompressibility K relates the change in pressure surrounding a
body to the corresponding relative change in volume of the body:
K V

P
2
E

V
3
3(1 2 )

(7)

Substitution of equation (5) into equation (4) shows that traction forces
and strain are related for an isotrpic medium in the following manner:

ij ij pq ip jq iq jp e pq
ij pq e pq ip jq e pq iq jp e pq

If we add over repeated subindices:

 ij 11e11 22e22 33e33

i p 1, 2 ,3 jq e1q e2 q e3 q

iq j p 1, 2 ,3 e1q e2 q e3 q

From the definition of a Kronecker delta, the only terms that will be nonzero and contribute to the stress tensor will be those which make the
subindices equal. That is for the second term on the right of the equals sign,
values exist if p i and q j . Similarly, for the third term on the right of the
equals sign values exist if p j and q i . With this simplification we arrive
at:
ij ekk ii jj eij ii jj e ji

Because the deformation tensor is symmetric eij e ji leading to the result

that
ij ij ekk 2eij

(8a) ->To Acoustic Wave Equation

In experiments we observe displacement, ground velocity and acceleration

so it makes sense to express the stresses in terms displacements,

ij ij

ui u j
uk
or, in complete indicial notation:

xk

x
j
i

ij ij uk , k (ui , j u j , i )

(8b)

since
eij

ui , j u j , i and ekk e11 e22 e33 uk , k u

2

V
Note too that u
, ( where V is the relative change in volume,
V
for infinitesimal deformations)
We obtain the wave equation for displacements in a general isotropic
medium by substituting (8b) into the equation of motion

ui ij , j f i (1)

ij uk , k (ui , j u j , i ) , j f i
( ij uk , k ), j j (ui , j u j ,i ) (ui , jj u j , ij ) f i ,

 , i ij uk , k ij uk , k ( (ui , j u j , i )), j (ui , jj u j , ij ) f i

after

expansion using the product rule.

Let us take each of the terms on the right hand side separately to
demonstrate the application of indicial notation. For each term i only the
case where j=i can contribute in the Kronecker delta, so
, i ij uk , k , i ii uk , k
, i u k , k
, i u j , j

because we can interchange the repeated ks by repeated js because they

both signify summation over the range of values for j; i.e., 1 through 3.
( )u j , ij ui , jj ,iu j , j , j (ui , j u j ,i ) f i
I

II

III

IV

(9)

After some algebra we show that an alternative expression can be

obtained by adding (9) vectorially from i 1,2,3 to arrive at:

u u 2u u u 2 u f (10)

Two fundamental body wave types: P waves and S waves

From the equation of motion (10) in vectorial form, we can demonstrate
(Poisson, 18..), that in an infinite elastic, and isotropic, homogeneous
medium two types of particle motion associated with traveling trains of
deformation can be predicted.
Since and are constant in a homogeneous medium, we have that
and both equal zero because there are no spatial changes in their
values. This leaves:

2u

2 u 2 u
t
But, we can use the identity:

u u 2u , (identity 1) so that

2u

2 u u
2
t

(11)

Now, if we take the divergence of (11) while keeping in mind that:

" vector" 0 and that

(identity 2)

 " scalar" 0 ,

(identity 3)

we can simplify the expression to because the second term on the right

becomes zero because u is a vector quantity, and its rotational is zero

(identity 2):

2u

2 2 u
t

2 u

2 u 2
2
t
We can change variable names by defining a new scalar field variable

u so that the immediately preceding expression looks like:

2
2 2
2
t

2 , where

2
t 2

In order to propagate this type of deformation through the medium the body
must expand and contract (divergence is non-zero)
Now, if we take the rotational of the general equation of motion as expressed
in equation (11) i.e.,

u 2 u u

2 u

2 ( u ) u
2
t

Because u is a scalar field and the rotational of the gradient of this field
is zero (identity 3). the first term on the right of the equation goes to zero:

2 u

u
2
t
We
can now change variable names by defining a new vector field variable

u so that the immediately preceding expression looks like:

2

2
t

because
the first term goes to zero since the divergence of the rotational of

is
zero
(identity 2)

eij

1 u j u j
(

)
2 x j
xi

ij cijpq e pq
c pqij cijpq
A SIMPLE EXAMPLE OF WAVE PROPAGATION

(From Ikele and Amundsen, 2005)

Appendix for section on the wave equation

->Back to

text
In this section we state that vectorial manipulation of the expression:

u ( )u j ,ij ui , jj ,i u j , j , j (ui , j u j ,i ) f i
I

II

III

IV

(9)

for i 1,2,3 leads to the alternative expression:

u u 2u u u 2 u f

In order to show the steps in detail, let us examine each of the terms I
through IV on the right hand side of equation (9).
Starting with I :

uk , ki

2u1
2u 2
2 u3

x1xi x2xi x3xi

u1
u2
u3

x1 xi x1 xi x1 xi
uki , k u j , ij

For II :

ui , jj

2 ui
2 ui
2ui

x1x1 x2x2 x3x3

2 ui