DETERMINATION OF THE ELASTIC CONSTANTS OF ANISOTROPIC SOLIDS FROM GROUP VELOCITIES MEASURED IN SYMMETRY DIRECTIONS

Abstract

We present in this article a novel method of determining all three elastic constants of cubic crystals from a single broadband waveform propagating in the [001] direction. The method can be easily extended to media of orthorhombic symmetry whose symmetry plane quasitransverse (QT) group velocity sheet is folded across the symmetry axis. The usefulness of these formulas lies in providing a very convenient and easy method of determining all the elastic constants of a medium from the rays propagating in the principal symmetry directions of the medium. Particular emphasis is given to the so-called oblique-mode QT rays with group velocity lying along a symmetry axis but with wave normal lying away from that axis in a symmetry plane. Through the use of these oblique modes the need to make off-axis measurements to obtain a complete set of elastic constants is circumvented. Moreover, we describe a method of clarifying the ambiguity that arises; with which symmetry plane is the wave normal of an oblique-mode QT ray propagating in the symmetry axis associated. Further, we show how the effect of a finite rise time source can be corrected for in the determination of a mixed index elastic constant.