Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2008
Small variations in the elastic parameters of a solid medium give rise to scattering of elastic waves and hence to a reduction in their amplitudes. The attenuation coefficients associated with this process have been calculated for surface waves.
Expressions have been derived for waves with wavelengths long compared with the mean wavelength of the variation of the elastic parameters in space. The attenuation coefficients were found to be the same as if the attenuating mechanism were a particular type of visco-elasticity.