Generation of waves in an elastic plate by a torsional moment and a horizontal force

Abstract

An approximate solution is determined for the motion of an infinite elastic plate, excited by a torsional moment (with the axis of the moment normal to the plate) and by a horizontal force (parallel to the plate). The driving moment and force are sinusoidal in time and applied to a small rigid indenter with a circular base, fixed to the plate. The solution is obtained from a three-dimensional approach but is evaluated only for low frequencies, where the wavelengths of the quasi-longitudinal, tranverse and bending waves are much larger than the thickness of the plate. For the case of excitation with a torsional moment, the solution contains two parts, one describing a travelling transverse wave and the other a local reaction. The local reaction is built up of two infinite sums of Love waves with imaginary wave numbers. The driving-point admittance due to the local reaction is larger than the admittance due to the tranverse wave when the diameter of the indenter is smaller than about twice the thickness of the plate. For the case of excitation with a horizontal force, the solution contains three parts that describe travelling waves (quasi-longitudinal, transverse and bending) and two parts that describe the local reaction (infinite sums of Lamb and Love waves). The admittances due to the three types of travelling waves are all of the same order of magnitude. The admittance due to the local reaction is of importance when the frequency is relatively high and the diameter of the identer much smaller than the thickness of the plate. For both cases of excitation, the admittance due to the local reaction increases with increasing thickness of the plate and tends to the value found for a semi-infinite medium.