Quantitative Correlation between Preferred Orientation of Grains and Elastic Anisotropy of Marble

In recent years the dependence between the propagation of elastic waves in anisotropic rocks and the preferred orientation of grains in the rocks has been under intensive study. The disadvantage of the conventional visual comparison of both quantities in graphical representation is the impossibility of quantitatively expressing the assumed similarity. In this respect, by using the cross-correlation approach, the authors have improved on this. According to the quite different character of both quantities, and to the special properties of the range of definition (sphere), a new method was needed for computing the cross-correlation function. This paper deals with experimental data processing and with determining the form of the cross-correlation function. The proposed method was successfully proven on a sample of marble. In the case investigated, the maximum value of the cross-correlation function corresponded to a mutual angular shift of the correlated quantities by approximately 15°.