Transient Elastic Waves in Anisotropic Plates

The equations of motion of a linear elastic solid have been used to study the propagation of transient compressional disturbances in anisotropic plates, generated by several types of surface and edge loadings. A particular orientation of the axes of material symmetry was chosen, and several classes of anisotropic media have been considered. From the exact solutions obtained, a far-field analysis based on a low-frequency, large-wavelength approximation is given; and numerical results are presented for copper, ice, zinc, beechwood, and several isotropic media for comparison purposes.