On a general class of constant-Q solids

Summary The so called 'constant- Q ' models of Becker and Lomnitz are shown to be two special cases of a 'constant- Q ' hypergeometric model. The Becker and Lomnitz cases appear to be the extreme cases of our more general model, and these special cases yield essentially the same mechanical behaviour over all frequencies. However, the interpretation in terms of a spring dashpot structure yields a markedly different behaviour in the values of the internal viscosity elements. This suggests that many different microstructure theories which are currently being investigated towards accounting for this constant- Q behaviour may all adequately explain the observations.