Keele Research Repository

This paper deals with the three-dimensional analysis of the near-resonant regimes of a point load, moving steadily along the surface of a coated elastic half-space. The approach developed relies on a specialized hyperbolic–elliptic formulation for the wave field, established earlier by the authors. Straightforward integral solutions of the two-dimensional perturbed wave equation describing wave propagation along the surface are derived along with their far-field asymptotic expansions obtained using the uniform stationary phase method. Both sub-Rayleigh and super-Rayleigh cases are studied. It is shown that the singularities arising at the contour of the Mach cones typical of the super-Rayleigh case, are smoothed due to the dispersive effect of the coating.