Interaction of waves with a sliding viscoelastic layer

Abstract

In this work, a theoretical analysis of bulk wave interaction with a sliding layer has been considered. The layer is assumed to be sliding with a constant velocity. The effect of the sliding velocity on the reflection and transmission behaviors has been studied. A low loss viscoelastic property is considered for the layer, which is held between two identical grounded elastic half-spaces. The governing equations for the dilatoric and deviatoric wave components in the viscoelastic layer are derived. The problem is solved using a coordinate transform based on an appropriate change in the wave velocities. The solutions are then used to calculate the reflection and transmission coefficients by solving the system of linear equations. The coefficients are observed to be affected remarkably by the sliding velocity of the layer. The effects of incidence angle and frequency of an incoming wave on the reflection and transmission characteristics are studied. The conditions for the existence of critical incidence are also discussed. This work gives some theoretical understanding of the wave characteristics in a sliding medium, which is expected to be useful in applications related to wave-based actuation and manipulation.