Elastic waveguides: history and the state of the art. II

In this paper, the normal modes of an elastic rectangular waveguide are analyzed. We retrace the key aspects of the almost 150-year history of this problem. Using the superposition method, we have obtained an analytical solution of the problem for four types of symmetry of the wave field. In addition, we have established important differences of the dispersion characteristics of normal modes in a rectangle from the Rayleigh–Lamb modes for an infinite plate and the Pochhammer–Chree modes for a cylinder. We give also an estimate of a series of approximate theories for a rectangular waveguide.

The numerical interpretation of the results of analysis is however necessary, and it is a degree of perfection which it would be very important to give to every application of analysis to the natural sciences. So long as it is not obtained, the solutions may be said to remain incomplete and useless, and the truth which it is proposed to discover is no less hidden in the formulas of analysis than it was in the physical problem itself.

                             J. Fourier 28, Sec. 13]