On Muki's solution of the equations of linear elasticity (Q1202964)

In 1955 Ruro Muki published some papers [\textit{R. Muki}, Proc. 5th Japan Nat. Cong. Appl. Mech., 119 ff. (1955); Proc. Fac. Eng. Keio Univ. 8, 68 ff. (1955); Progress in solid mechanics (1960)] (in Japanese) on the solution of the equations of linear elasticity for a homogeneous, isotropic elastic half-space. Muki's solution is based on the expression of the displacement field in terms of harmonic and biharmonic functions, the simple partial differential equations for which are then solved by the use of Hankel transforms. The difficulty with this method is that in special cases the expressions for the harmonic and biharmonic functions deduced from the general solution may reduce to divergent integrals. The purpose of the present paper is twofold; first of all to show that Muki's results can be derived directly from the field equations by the same technique without expressing the displacement field in terms of harmonic and biharmonic functions, and secondly to draw attention to Muki's pioneering work.