Paper 2, Section II, 40A

Waves | Part II, 2021

A semi-infinite elastic medium with shear modulus μ\mu and shear-wave speed csc_{s} lies in z0z \leqslant 0. Above it, there is a layer 0zh0 \leqslant z \leqslant h of a second elastic medium with shear modulus μˉ\bar{\mu} and shear-wave speed cˉs<cs\bar{c}_{s}<c_{s}. The top boundary is stress-free. Consider a monochromatic SH-wave propagating in the xx-direction at speed cc with wavenumber k>0k>0.

(a) Derive the dispersion relation

tan[khc2/cˉs21]=μμˉ1c2/cs2c2/cˉs21\tan \left[k h \sqrt{c^{2} / \bar{c}_{s}^{2}-1}\right]=\frac{\mu}{\bar{\mu}} \frac{\sqrt{1-c^{2} / c_{s}^{2}}}{\sqrt{c^{2} / \bar{c}_{s}^{2}-1}}

for trapped modes with no disturbance as zz \rightarrow-\infty.

(b) Show graphically that there is always a zeroth mode, and show that the other modes have cut-off frequencies

ωc(n)=nπcˉscshcs2cˉs2\omega_{c}^{(n)}=\frac{n \pi \bar{c}_{s} c_{s}}{h \sqrt{c_{s}^{2}-\bar{c}_{s}^{2}}}

where nn is a positive integer. Sketch a graph of frequency ω\omega against kk for the n=1n=1 mode showing the behaviour near cut-off and for large kk.

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