Effect of crack aperture on P-wave velocity and dispersion

Abstract

We experimentally studied the effect of crack aperture on P-wave velocity, amplitude, anisotropy and dispersion. Experimental models were constructed based on Hudson’s theory. Six crack models were embedded with equal-radius penny-shaped crack inclusions in each layer. The P-wave velocity and amplitude were measured parallel and perpendicular to the layers of cracks at frequencies of 0.1 MHz to 1 MHz. The experiments show that as the crack aperture increases from 0.1 mm to 0.34 mm, the amplitude of the P-waves parallel to the crack layers decreases linearly with increasing frequency and the P-wave velocity dispersion varies from 1.5% to 2.1%, whereas the amplitude of the P-wave perpendicular to the crack layers decreases quadratically with increasing frequency and the velocity dispersion varies from 1.9% to 4.7%. The variation in the velocity dispersion parallel and perpendicular to the cracks intensifies the anisotropy dispersion of the P-waves in the crack models (6.7% to 83%). The P-wave dispersion strongly depends on the scattering characteristics of the crack apertures.