A study of dilatation and acoustic propagation in solidifying fats and oils: I. Theoretical

A theoretical relationship is presented relating acoustic velocity to dilatation in two-phase systems. The theory is based on studies of seismic propagation by Kuster and Toksöz, who include acoustic propagation in a fluid matrix containing spherical or spheroidal solid inclusions as a special case of their theory. The relationship presented in this paper applies in the long wavelength limit and predicts a linear relationship between acoustic dilatation and volume dilatation in crystallizing liquids, when the acoustic dilatation is much less than unity. I anticipate that this theory may lead to the application of acoustics in the assessment of a wide range of crystallizing systems such as oils.