The Excitation and Propagation of Elastic Waves (Cambridge Monographs on Mechanics) Book

This new paperback edition of Dr Hudson's advanced textbook presents the theory of small disturbances propagating through solids. The material is set out carefully in mathematical detail. The linearized theory of elasticity has now been replaced by a more fundamental approach based on a generalized theory of continuum mechanics. Despite this change of emphasis in solid mechanics there remain important areas of physics in which the linear theory is clearly of fundamental importance, especially in seismology, noise analysis and the non-destructive testing of materials. The author's approach is to present the major results for the propagation of transient pulses in an unbounded isotropic material. He deals with compressional and shear waves, surface waves, wavefronts and raypaths in the first four chapters. The next two chapters, on initial-value and time-harmonic problems, investigate uniqueness, reciprocity and representations in terms of Green's functions. Lamb's problem is considered in chapters seven and eight, and viscoelastic materials are examined in the final section.