Elastic Wave Emission from Damage Processes

The theory of elastic wave emission (i.e., acoustic emission; AE) from damage processes such as slip and microcracking is discussed. Analogous developments in the literature on earthquake seismology and dynamic dislocation theory are noted and utilized. A general representation of the displacement field of an AE event is given in terms of the double-couple response to a distribution of "moment density tensor" in the source region. Results are specialized to a point source model and to a general far-field analysis of outgoing elastic waves, and conditions for validity of such representations and their low-frequency specializations are noted. Emitted wave fields are compared for tensile opening and slip events, and procedures which might enable the approximate determination of the size or area increase of tensile microcracks are discussed.