Plane strain wave in an isotropic layer of a viscoelastic material

The velocity and the rate of decay of a strain wave in a layer of a viscoelastic material rigidly fixed on a solid foundation are determined. The wave structure (ratio of the longitudinal to the transverse displacement) and the profiles of these displacements are analyzed. Attenuation of waves in the first mode is found to be more significant than that in an infinite space. The most intense decay is observed at resonance frequencies. A strong effect of compressibility of the medium on wave parameters is revealed. Conditions at which such a system operates as a waveguide are found. For a loss tangent higher than 0.13 (for an incompressible medium), the character of the dispersion dependence is observed to change drastically: the wave velocity decreases with decreasing frequency. __________ Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika i Tekhnicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 47, No. 3, pp. 104–111, May–June, 2006.