Revisiting displacement functions in three-dimensional elasticity of inhomogeneous media

The paper presents a three-dimensional solution to the equilibrium equations for linear elastic transversely isotropic inhomogeneous media. We assume that the material has constant Poisson’s ratios, and its Young’s and shear moduli have the same functional form of dependence on the co-ordinate normal to the plane of isotropy. We show, apparently for the first time, that stresses and displacements in such an inhomogeneous transversely isotropic elastic solid can be represented in terms of two displacement functions which satisfy the second- and fourth-order partial differential equations. We examine and discuss key aspects of the new representation; they include the relationship between the new displacement functions and Plevako’s solution for isotropic inhomogeneous material with constant Poisson’s ratio as well as the application of the new representation to some important classes of three-dimensional elasticity problems. As an example, the displacement function is derived that can be used to determine stresses and displacements in an inhomogeneous transversely isotropic half-space which is subjected to a concentrated force normal to a free surface and applied at the origin (Boussinesq’s problem).