Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Preliminaries
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Basic wave propagation
- 3 Transforms
- 4 Review of continuum mechanics and elastic waves
- 5 Asymptotic ray theory
- 6 Rays at an interface
- 7 Differential systems for stratified media
- 8 Inverse transforms for stratified media
- 9 Canonical signals
- 10 Generalizations of ray theory
- Appendices
- Bibliography
- Author index
- Subject index
6 - Rays at an interface
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Preliminaries
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Basic wave propagation
- 3 Transforms
- 4 Review of continuum mechanics and elastic waves
- 5 Asymptotic ray theory
- 6 Rays at an interface
- 7 Differential systems for stratified media
- 8 Inverse transforms for stratified media
- 9 Canonical signals
- 10 Generalizations of ray theory
- Appendices
- Bibliography
- Author index
- Subject index
Summary
At a discontinuity in material properties - an interface - multiple rays or waves are generated. For an individual ray, the ray properties - direction, amplitudes and polarizations - are discontinuous. This chapter describes the discontinuities in these results, i.e. Snell's law (direction), the dynamic ray discontinuity (geometrical spreading), and reflection/transmission coefficients (amplitude and polarizations). The reflection/transmission coefficients are developed in a general manner for acoustic, elastic and fluid-solid interfaces which, with the correct normalizations, emphasizes relationships between different coefficients. At an interface, several rays combine and the response is not given by a simple ray polarization. The necessary receiver conversion coefficients, particularly at a free surface, are derived. A procedure for linearly perturbing the coefficients is developed. These perturbation or differential coefficients are particularly useful for obtaining approximate coefficients from a weak-contrast interface. In the final section, the concept of an individual ray is generalized to a ray table characterized by a ray signature. This is used to generalize the ray Green dyadic to include interfaces.
The results in the previous chapter, Chapter 5, describe rays in media without discontinuities. If the medium contains interfaces, i.e. discontinuities in the material properties, density or elastic parameters, then the ray theory solution breaks down due to discontinuities in the solution or its derivatives. It is necessary to impose the boundary conditions on the solution at the interface before continuing the ray solution, and this is investigated in this chapter.
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- Fundamentals of Seismic Wave Propagation , pp. 198 - 246Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004