Surface waves in electrostrictive materials under biasing fields (Q1881546)

The Stroh formalism for two-dimensional anisotropic elasticity and linear piezoelectricity is extended to general electroelastic materials subjected to uniform biasing fields. After applying the generalized Stroh formalism to acoustic waves propagating along a surface in a semi-infinite electroelastic body in the pressence of biasing fields, the authors conclude that there are at most two types of surface waves, i.e., the Rayleigh wave and Bleustein wave. The authors also develop a systematic procedure to determine the speed and the polarization vector of surface waves. The latter distinguishes the above-mentioned two types of waves by demonstrating the different structures of polarization vectors.