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Frequency dependence of fracture stiffness
Author(s) -
PyrakNolte Laura J.,
Nolte David D.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/91gl03179
Subject(s) - stiffness , fracture (geology) , discontinuity (linguistics) , mechanics , displacement (psychology) , materials science , structural engineering , physics , composite material , mathematics , mathematical analysis , engineering , psychology , psychotherapist
The frequency dependence of fracture specific stiffness, for seismic or ultrasonic wave transmission, is shown to be a simple scaling property of fractures with spatially inhomogeneous distributions of stiffness. Different frequencies sample different subsets of the fracture geometry. Therefore the frequency dependence may be a simple consequence of fracture geometry and requires no additional dynamical mechanism. In this letter, the dynamic fracture stiffness is determined based on the displacement discontinuity model for wave transmission across a fracture. Local transmission coefficients are assumed to depend on the local static stiffness. For a fracture with a single value of static stiffness, the dynamic stiffness is frequency independent. A strongly inhomogeneous distribution of fracture stiffnesses produces a strong frequency dependence for the dynamic stiffness.