Acoustical and optical branches of wave propagation in random particulate composites

The work is dedicated to the analysis of acoustical and optical branches of longitudinal elastic wave propagation in the medium with a random set of spherical inclusions. The effective field method and quasicrystalline approximation are used for the construction of the dispersion equation for the wave number of the mean (coherent) wave field propagating in the composite. This dispersion equation serves for all frequencies of the incident field, properties and volume concentrations of inclusions. Different branches of the solutions of this equation are obtained and analyzed. Each of these branches may be interpreted as a specific mode of wave propagation, and its input in the mean (coherent) wave field is essential only in a certain frequency region. The predictions of the method are compared with some experimental data existing in the literature.