Mathematical analysis of the propagation of elastic guided waves in heterogeneous media (Q750749): Difference between revisions

This article is concerned with the propagation of elastic waves in isotropic heterogeneous media, invariant under translation in one direction. The authors give a theoretical analysis of the existence of guided waves and of their properties. By definition, a guided wave (or guided mode) is a solution of the elastodynamic equations in the form \[ U_ j(x,t)=\tilde u_ j(x_ 1,x_ 2)\exp i(\omega t-\beta x_ 3),\quad j=1,2,3, \] where \(\omega >0\) is the pulsation of the mode, \(\beta >0\) is the wave number, and \((\tilde u_ j(x_ 1,x_ 2)\), \(j=1,2,3)\) is a complex valued vector field which must satisfy \[ 0<\sum^{3}_{j=1}\int_{R^ 2}| \tilde u_ j(x_ 1,x_ 2)|^ 2 dx_ 1 dx_ 2<+\infty. \] Such solutions can appear in a nonhomogeneous medium, if and only if \(\omega\) and \(\beta\) satisfy a dispersion relation. The problem is reduced to research the eigenvalues \(\omega^ 2\) and the eigenfunctions \(\tilde u\) of a selfadjoint operator \({\mathcal A}(\beta)\) in the Hilbert space \(L^ 2(R^ 2,\rho dx_ 1 dx_ 2)\). All the results stem from the spectral analysis of \({\mathcal A}(\beta)\) and the main tool of the analysis is the spectral theory of selfadjoint operators and more specifically the Max-Min principle.