This paper reports the eigenstructure of a set of first-order hyperbolic partial differential equations for modeling waves in solids with a trigonal 32 symmetry. The governing equations include the equation of motion and partial differentiation of the elastic constitutive relation with respect to time. The result is a set of nine, first-order, fully coupled, hyperbolic partial differential equations with velocity and stress components as the unknowns. Shown in the vector form, the model equations have three 9×9 coefficient matrices. The wave physics are fully described by the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of these matrices; i.e., the nontrivial eigenvalues are the wave speeds, and a part of the corresponding left eigenvectors represents wave polarization. For a wave moving in a certain direction, three wave speeds can be identified by calculating the eigenvalues of the coefficient matrix in a rotated coordinate system. In this process, without using the plane-wave solution, we recover the Christoffel matrix and thus validate the formulation. To demonstrate this approach, two- and three-dimensional slowness profiles of quartz are calculated. Wave polarization vectors for wave propagation in several compression directions as well as noncompression directions are discussed.
A numerical method of characteristics for solving hyperbolic partial differential equations
