Elastic wave and excitation mechanism of surface waves in multilayered media

Abstract

The elastic wave field and the excitation mechanism of the surface waves in multilayered elastic solid media are studied in this paper. On the basis of Abo-zena [Geophys. J. R. Astron. Soc. 58, 91–105 (1979)] and Menke [Geophys. J. R. Astron. Soc. 59, 315–323 (1979)], the elastic wave field is further investigated in the B, P, C coordinate system. The so-called new type of propagator matrix introduced by Menke to avoid loss of the precision problem is improved. It presented an important result and some new properties. The dispersion characteristics and excitation mechanisms of the surface waves (Rayleigh and Love waves) are also investigated via numerical simulation. The excitation intensities of the surface waves strongly depend on the frequency range of the source. The source frequency should be controlled in a proper range to effectively excite the surface waves. Two quantities, β1 (the ratio of B to P components of displacement) and β2 (the ratio of B to P components of stress), are defined for the Rayleigh wave. It is found that β1 and β2 are sensitive to the material property of the medium and the layered geometry, and they are two important physical quantities for exploring the structures of the interfaces and the velocity distributions of layers under the free surface. The relative error in estimating the thickness of each medium by β1 and β2 is less than 10%. The effects of the thickness of each layer of media and other factors on the dispersion characteristics of Rayleigh and Love waves and the values of β1 and β2 are also analyzed.