Modified Szabo’s wave equation models for lossy media obeying frequency power law

Szabo's models of acoustic attenuation [Szabo, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 96(1), 491-500 (1994)] comply well with the empirical frequency power law involving noninteger and odd-integer exponent coefficients while guaranteeing causality, but nevertheless encounter the troublesome issues of hypersingular improper integral and obscurity in implementing initial conditions. The purpose of this paper is to ease or remove these drawbacks of the Szabo's models via the Caputo fractional derivative concept. The positive time-fractional derivative is also introduced to include the positivity of the attenuation processes.