Application of the generalized rays to transient waves in an elastic half-space due to a buried line source (Q1087356)

The aim of this investigation is to study by means of the generalized rays the effects of a free surface on the propagation of elastic transient waves emanating from a line source of explosion, which varies with time as the Heaviside step function with rounded shoulders. This is accomplished by the numerical evaluation and analysis of the exact solutions provided by this theory. Graphs are obtained which show displacements and stresses as functions of time at three different receivers in the interior of an infinite medium and at the free surface of a homogeneous half-space. The character of surface responses, for short observation times, is the same as in the infinite medium, with the difference that they are all amplified (surface receiver effect). The late time surface responses are characterized by the presence of a smooth pulse representing the Rayleigh surface wave. The Rayleigh pulse in the non-vanishing surface stress takes its ultimate shape already close to the epicentre, while the Rayleigh pulse in the surface displacements developes fully at the remote distance from the epicentre.