On the elastic wave equation in weakly anisotropic VTI media

The knowledge of the wave equation is of fundamental importance for a good and satisfying understanding of the phenomena of wave propagation. However, it is unsatisfactory and inefficient to work with the full anisotropic wave equation in media that exhibit certain symmetries. We derive a specific elastic wave equation for weakly anisotropic VTI media by linearizing the expression of the stiffness tensor in terms of the Thomsen parameters. The resulting wave equation is a system of three coupled differential equations for the three components of the displacement vector. For δ = 0, the third equation becomes an independent equation for the third component of the particle displacement, identical to the isotropic situation, and the first two equations remain coupled. Using zero-order ray theory, we derive the associated eikonal and transport equations for q-P, q-SV and q-SH waves. These are finally reduced to the pseudo-acoustic case where the vertical S-wave velocity is zero. This allows for a better understanding of the pseudo-S-wave artefact in such media.