Plane strain dynamics of elastic solids with intrinsic boundary elasticity, with application to surface wave propagation

In this paper, in a development of the static theory derived by Steigmann and Ogden (Proc. Roy. Soc. London A 453 (1997) 853), we establish the equations of motion for a non-linearly elastic body in plane strain with an elastic surface coating on part or all of its boundary. The equations of (linearized) incremental motions superposed on a finite static deformation are then obtained and applied to the problem of (time-harmonic) surface wave propagation on a pre-stressed incompressible isotropic elastic half-space with a thin coating on its plane boundary. The secular equation for (dispersive) wave speeds is then obtained in respect of a general form of incompressible isotropic elastic strain-energy function for the bulk material and a general energy function for the coating material. Specialization of the form of strain-energy function enables the secular equation to be cast as a quartic equation and we therefore focus on this for illustrative purposes. An explicit form for the secular equation is thereby obtained. This involves a number of material parameters, including residual stress and moment in the properties of the coating. It is shown how this equation relates to previous work on waves in a half-space with an overlying thin layer set in the classical theory of isotropic elasticity and, in particular, the significant effect of omission of the rotatory inertia term, even at small wave numbers, is emphasized. Corresponding results for a membrane-type coating, for which the bending moment, inertia and residual moment terms are absent, are also obtained. Asymptotic formulas for the wave speed at large wave number (high frequency) are derived and it is shown how these results influence the character of the wave speed throughout the range of wave number values. A bifurcation criterion is obtained from the secular equation by setting the wave speed to zero, thereby generalizing the bifurcation results of Steigmann and Ogden (Proc. Roy. Soc. London A 453 (1997) 853) to the situation in which residual stress and moment are present in the coating. Numerical results which show the dependence of the wave speed on the various material parameters and the finite deformation are then described graphically. In particular, features which differ from those arising in the classical theory are highlighted. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.