Rayleigh waves in an orthotropic elastic half-space overlaid by an elastic layer with spring contact

In this paper, the propagation of Rayleigh waves in an orthotropic elastic half-space overlaid by an orthotropic elastic layer of arbitrary uniform thickness is investigated. The layer and the half-space are both compressible and they are in spring contact with each other. The main aim of the paper is to derive explicit exact secular equation of the wave. This equation has been derived by using the effective boundary condition method. From the obtained secular equation, the secular equations for the welded and sliding contacts can be derived immediately as special cases. For the welded contact, the obtained secular equation recovers the secular equations previously obtained for the isotropic and orthotropic materials. Since the obtained secular equation is totally explicit it is a good tool for nondestructively evaluating the adhesive bond between the layer and half-space as well as their mechanical properties.