Wave reflection in slightly compressible, finitely deformed elastic media

Summary  In this paper, the reflection of a plane wave at an incrementally traction-free boundary of a half-space composed of nearly incompressible elastic material is considered. It is shown that two distinct cases exist, these being dependent on the underlying primary deformation. In the first case, the appropriate slowness sections are each approximately elliptical, and the corresponding reflection phenomena closely mirrors that associated with the corresponding linear isotropic theory. Specifically, an angular range of direction of incident wave exists, for which both a quasi-longitudinal and quasi-shear wave are reflected, the former being replaced by a surface wave outside this angular range. In the second case, the outer slowness section is re-enrant and, in addition to the scenarios previously mentioned, it is possible for two quasi-shear waves to be reflected. Numerical illustrations of reflection coefficients are presented in respect of a modified Varga material and the case of increasing bulk modulus is investigated. Received 17 January 2000; accepted for publication 22 February 2000