Rayleigh waves in an incompressible elastic half-space overlaid with a water layer under the effect of gravity

This paper is concerned with the propagation of Rayleigh waves in an incompressible isotropic elastic half-space overlaid with a layer of non-viscous incompressible water under the effect of gravity. The authors have derived the exact secular equation of the wave which did not appear in the literature. Based on it the existence of Rayleigh waves is considered. It is shown that a Rayleigh wave can be possible or not, and when a Rayleigh wave exists it is not necessary unique. From the exact secular equation the authors arrive immediately at the first-order approximate secular equation derived by Bromwich Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. 30:98–120, 1898]. When the layer is assumed to be thin, a fourth-order approximate secular equation is derived and of which the first-order approximate secular equation obtained by Bromwich is a special case. Some approximate formulas for the velocity of Rayleigh waves are established. In particular, when the layer being thin and the effect of gravity being small, a second-order approximate formula for the velocity is created which recovers the first-order approximate formula obtained by Bromwich Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. 30:98–120, 1898]. For the case of thin layer, a second-order approximate formula for the velocity is provided and an approximation, called global approximation, for it is derived by using the best approximate second-order polynomials of the third- and fourth-powers.