A Non-Decoupled Time-Domain Direct Sampling Method for Inverse Elastic Medium Scattering

Abstract

This work is concerned with an inverse medium problem for elastic waves, in which unknown inhomogeneities are reconstructed from time-resolved boundary measurements. We propose a novel time-domain direct sampling method for locating scatterers from a single incident source, without imposing specific assumptions on the temporal profile of the excitation. In particular, the imaging functional introduces a time-shifted correlation strategy that replaces the traditional $P$-$S$ wave decomposition with a travel-time alignment mechanism, thereby enabling direct imaging from the coupled elastic wave field. To analyze the proposed time-domain imaging functional, we employ Parseval's identity for the Fourier--Laplace transform and reformulate the functional in the frequency domain. By exploiting properties of modified Bessel functions, we characterize the asymptotic behavior of the imaging functional and show that it attains its maximum at the target location, which enables reliable identification of the scatterer. Rigorous theoretical justifications are provided to substantiate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Numerical experiments are also presented to demonstrate its performance and applicability.