Energy-conserving and single-scattering parabolic equation solutions for elastic media

Abstract

Parabolic equation techniques are efficient for solving nonseparable wave propagation problems. When the properties of the medium vary gradually in range, parabolic equation solutions are also very accurate for many problems. The key to achieving accuracy and efficiency simultaneously is to apply energy-conservation or single-scattering corrections to account properly for range dependence. This approach has proven to be very effective for acoustic media. Some progress has been made on the elastic case [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 94, 975–982 (1993); 94, 1815–1825 (1993)], but this problem has not been fully resolved. In this paper we will discuss some recent progress in the formulation of the elastic parabolic equation [W. Jerzak, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. (submitted)], a single-scattering approach for a vector wave problem [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 104, 783–790 (1998)], and how they are being used to improve the accuracy of parabolic equation solutions for problems involving elastic sediments. [Work supported by ONR.]