Rayleigh wave attenuation due to the scattering by two-dimensional irregularities of the walls of an empty borehole

Attenuation of the Rayleigh waves propagating along an irregular surface of an empty borehole is investigated. This problem generalizes the problem on the attenuation of Rayleigh waves by an irregular boundary of a half-space. The technique used to evaluate the attenuation coefficient is based on the perturbation method and the mean field method. As a result, an expression is obtained that relates the partial attenuation coefficients of the surface Rayleigh wave to the scattering by the irregular surface of an empty borehole into the bulk longitudinal and transverse waves (the R → P and R → S processes) and into the surface Rayleigh waves (the R → R processes). The frequency-dependent behavior of the partial attenuation coefficients is analyzed for different correlation functions of irregularities.