Asymptotic ray theory of linear viscoelastic media

The Asymptotic Ray Theory (ART) has become a frequently used technique for the numerical modeling of seismic wave propagation in complex geological models. This theory was originally developed for elastic structures with the ray amplitude computation performed in the time domain. ART is now extended to linear viscoelastic media, the linear theory of viscoelasticity being used to simulate the dispersive properties peculiar to anelastic materials. This extension of ART is based on the introduction of a frequency dependent amplitude term having the same properties as in the elastic case and on a frequency dependent complex phase function. Consequently the ray amplitude computation is now performed in the frequency domain, the final solution being obtained by carrying out an Inverse Fourier Transform. Since ART is used, the boundary conditions for the kinematic and dynamic properties of the waves only have to be satisfied locally. This results in a much simpler Snell's Law for linear viscoelastic media, which in fact turns out to be of the same form as for the elastic case. No complex angle is involved. Furthermore the rays, the ray parameters, the geometrical spreading are all real values implying that the direction of the attenuation vector is always along the ray. The reflection and transmission coefficients were therefore rederived. These viscoelastic ART coefficients behave differently from those obtained with the Plane Wave method. Their amplitude and phase curves are always close to those computed for perfectly elastic media and they smoothly approach the elastic reflection/transmission coefficients when the quality factors increase to infinity. These same ART coefficients also display some non-physical results depending on the choice of the quality factors. This last feature might be useful to determine whether or not the two media making up the interface can be regarded as linear viscoelastic. Finally the results obtained from synthetic seismogram computations using ART and other techniques seem to reveal that this extension of Asymptotic Ray Theory correctly accounts for the dispersion and the amplitude decay of waves propagating through linear viscoelastic media.