SH-type waves dispersion in an isotropic medium sandwiched between an initially stressed orthotropic and heterogeneous semi-infinite media

Abstract

The present paper studies the propagation of shear waves (SH-type waves) in an homogeneous isotropic medium sandwiched between two semi infinite media. The upper half-space is considered as orthotropic medium under initial stress and lower half-space considered as heterogeneous medium. We have obtained the dispersion equation of phase velocity for SH-type waves. The propagation of SH-type waves are influenced by inhomogeneity parameters and initial stress parameter. The velocity of SH-type wave has been computed for different cases. We have also obtained the dispersion equation of phase velocity in homogeneous media in the absence of initial stress. The velocities of SH-type waves are calculated numerically as a function of kH (non-dimensional wave number) and presented in a number of graphs. To study the effect of inhomogeneity parameters and initial stress parameter we have plotted the velocity of SH-type wave in several figure. We have observed that the velocity of wave increases with the increase inhomogeneity parameters. We found that in both homogeneous and inhomogeneous media the velocity of SH-type wave increases with the increase of initial stress parameter. The results may be useful for the study of seismic waves propagation during any earthquake and artificial explosions.