Anharmonic properties of solids from measurements of the stress acoustic constant

The equations of elastic motion and their solutions are generalized in order to include nonzero homogeneous initial stresses and redefine the stress acoustic constants to include the effect of initial stress. In deriving the relationship between the stress acoustic constants and the strain-generalized Gruneisen parameters, implications in material anharmonicity and nonlinear thermoelasticity are discovered. It is found that the linear change in velocity obtained from these measurements is a nonlinear process resulting from anharmonicity in the interatomic potential. In addition, the thermal expansion coefficient can also be expressed in terms of linear combinations.