Improved modeling of anisotropic effects on seismic waves in layered transversely isotropic half-spaces: Implications for velocity profile inversion challenges

In this paper, we first derive the dynamic solution in a transversely isotropic (TI) elastic and layered half-space, induced by a time-harmonic vertical load on its surface. The solution is obtained via the efficient and unconditionally stable dual variable and position (DVP) matrix method along with the fast Fourier-Bessel series (FBS) expansion approach. In order to study the effect of material anisotropy, the degree of anisotropy, namely the ratio of the horizontal Young's modulus over vertical Young's modulus, is introduced as the key parameter, with a very reasonable assumption on other involved elastic constants in the layered TI half-space. This enables us to investigate the effect of material anisotropy on the wave Green's functions, dispersion curves, ellipticity, and polarity. By comparing with the effect of Poisson's ratio in the corresponding layered isotropic (ISO) half-space, we observe that nearly all the wave features with varying degrees of anisotropy in the TI layered half-space are similar to those with varying Poisson's ratio in the corresponding ISO half-space. This indicates the challenge or non-uniqueness in the inversion of TI velocity profiles using vertical surface loading only.