Modified 1D elastic wave equations that retain time synchronization under spatial coordinate transformations

Abstract: In contrast to the traditional elastodynamic equations, a more comprehensive formulation of one dimensional (1D) elastodynamic equations is given for inhomogeneous media by using the coordinate transformation method. These modified equations consider the gradient of pre-stresses so that they are form-invariant and can retain time synchronization under spatial coordinate transformation, which comply with the principle of general invariance. A numerical example is conducted to compare the distributions of wave speeds calculated by the modified equations and the traditional equations. It demonstrates that the traditional equations are good approximations of the modified equations only when the wave frequency is sufficiently high.