Transport Properties of Random Media: A New Effective Medium Theory

Abstract

We present a new method for efficient, accurate calculations of transport properties of random media. It is based on the principle that the wave energy density should be uniform when averaged over length scales larger than the size of the scatterers. This scheme captures the effects of resonant scattering of the individual scatterer exactly, as well as the multiple scattering in a mean-field sense. It has been successfully applied to both “scalar” and “vector” classical wave calculations. Results for the energy transport velocity are in agreement with experiment. This approach is of general use and can be easily extended to treat different types of wave propagation in random media.