Effect of initial stress on harmonic plane homogeneous waves in viscoelastic anisotropic media

Biot's theory is used to study the effect of initial stress on phase velocity and attenuation of plane homogeneous waves in viscoelastic anisotropic medium. Modified Christoffel equations are derived for three-dimensional wave propagation in a general viscoelastic anisotropic medium under initial stress. Effect of initial stress on wave propagation is observed through the deviations in phase velocity and attenuation–amplitude factor for each of the three existing quasi-waves. A particular numerical example shows that the attenuation is more sensitive to the presence of initial stress as compared to the propagation velocities.