Paper 2, Section II, C
Show that the equations governing linear elasticity have plane-wave solutions, distinguishing between and waves.
A semi-infinite elastic medium in (where is the vertical coordinate) with density and Lamé moduli and is overlaid by a layer of thickness in of a second elastic medium with density and Lamé moduli and . The top surface at is free, that is, the surface tractions vanish there. The speed of the S-waves is lower in the layer, that is, . For a time-harmonic SH-wave with horizontal wavenumber and frequency , which oscillates in the slow top layer and decays exponentially into the fast semi-infinite medium, derive the dispersion relation for the apparent horizontal wave speed :
Show graphically that for a given value of there is always at least one real value of which satisfies equation . Show further that there are one or more higher modes if