Application of the reciprocity theorem to scattering of surface waves by a cavity

Abstract

Scattering of surface waves by a cylindrical cavity at the surface of a homogenous, isotropic, linearly elastic half-space is analyzed in this paper. In the usual manner, the scattered field is shown to be equivalent to the radiation from a distribution of tractions, obtained from the incident wave on the surface of the cavity. For the approximation used in this paper, these tractions are shifted to tractions applied to the projection of the cavity on the surface of the half-space. The radiation of surface waves from a normal and a tangential line load, recently determined by the use of the reciprocity theorem, is employed to obtain the field scattered by the cavity from the superposition of displacements due to the distributed surface tractions. The vertical displacement at some distance from the cavity is compared with the solution of the scattering problem obtained by the boundary element method (BEM) for various depths and widths of the cavity. Comparisons between the analytical and BEM results are graphically displayed. The limitations of the approximate approach are discussed based on the comparisons with the BEM results.