Dynamic response in a bi-material spherical medium

Summary The elastodynamic problem of a bi-material spherical medium is solved under the condition that the external load applied is spherically symmetric. Exact and explicit formulas are provided for displacements and stresses induced by the propagating, reflected and transmitted waves. The D' Alembert solution is taken as a basic form, thereby reducing the boundary and interface conditions to ordinary differential equations and systems of ordinary differential equations. The integration constants contained in the solutions of the differential equations are fixed by a singularity extraction procedure, which removes from the solution those portions that are inadmissible to the wave motion problem. A number of numerical results are offered, to validate the analysis and to demonstrate the capability of the solution method in solving elastodynamic problems of engineering significance. Received 12 March 1996; accepted for publication 16 December 1996