Keele Research Repository

We address the problem of wave propagation in a pre-stressed elastic layer with mixed boundary conditions, the layer having one fixed and one free face. Numerical analysis provides a good initial insight into the influence of these boundary conditions on dispersion characteristics. In the long wave regime, there is clearly no evidence of low-frequency motion and thus an absence of any long wave fundamental mode-like features. In the short wave regime, however, the dispersion relations does show evidence of low-frequency dispersion phenomena. The first harmonic’s short wave phase speed limit is shown to be distinct from that of all other harmonics; this coincides with the associated Rayleigh surface wave speed. The short wave analysis is completed with the derivation of approximate solutions for the higher harmonics. Asymptotic long wave approximations of the dispersion relation are then obtained for motion within the vicinity of the thickness stretch and thickness shear resonance frequencies. These approximations are required to obtain the relative asymptotic orders of the displacement components for frequencies within the vicinity of either the shear or stretch resonance frequencies. This enables an analogue of the asymptotic stress-strain state to be established through asymptotic integration.