Torsional surface waves in a gradient-elastic half-space

The present work deals with torsional wave propagation in a linear gradient-elastic half-space. More specifically, we prove that torsional surface waves (i.e. waves with amplitudes exponentially decaying with distance from the free surface) do exist in a homogeneous gradient-elastic half-space. This finding is in contrast with the well-known result of the classical theory of linear elasticity that torsional surface waves do not exist in a homogeneous half-space. The weakness of the classical theory, at this point, is only circumvented by modeling the half-space as having material properties variable with depth (E. Meissner, Elastische Oberflachenwellen mit Dispersion in einem inhomogenen Medium, Vierteljahrsschrift der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Zurich 66 (1921) 181–195; I. Vardoulakis, Torsional surface waves in inhomogeneous elastic media, Internat. J. Numer. Anal. Methods Geomech. 8 (1984) 287–296; G.A. Maugin, Shear horizontal surface acoustic waves on solids, in: D.F. Parker, G.A. Maugin (Eds.), Recent Developments in Surface Acoustic Waves, Springer Series on Wave Phenomena, vol. 7, Springer, Berlin, 1988, pp. 158–172), as a layered structure (Maugin, 1988; E. Reissner, Freie und erzwungene Torsionsschwingungen des elastischen Halbraumes, Ingenieur-Archiv 8 (1937) 229–245) or by considering couplings with electric and magnetic fields for different types of materials (Maugin, 1988). The theory employed here is the simplest possible version of Mindlin’s (R.D. Mindlin, Micro-structure in linear elasticity, Arch. Rat. Mech. Anal. 16 (1964) 51–78) generalized linear elasticity. A simple wave-propagation analysis based on Hankel transforms and complex-variable theory was done in order to determine the conditions for the existence of the torsional surface motions and to derive dispersion curves and cut-off frequencies. Also, we notice that, up to date, no other generalized linear continuum theory (including the integral-type non-local theory) has successfully been proposed to predict torsional surface waves in a homogeneous half-space.