The effect of rotation and initial stress on the propagation of waves in a transversely isotropic elastic solid

• The effect of rotation on elastic wave propagation.
• The effect of initial stress on elastic wave propagation.
• Elastic wave propagation under combined initial stress and rotation.

In this paper the equations governing small amplitude motions in a rotating transversely isotropic initially stressed elastic solid are derived, both for compressible and incompressible linearly elastic materials. The equations are first applied to study the effects of initial stress and rotation on the speed of homogeneous plane waves propagating in a configuration with uniform initial stress. The general forms of the constitutive law, stresses and the elasticity tensor are derived within the finite deformation context and then summarized for the considered transversely isotropic material with initial stress in terms of invariants, following which they are specialized for linear elastic response and, for an incompressible material, to the case of plane strain, which involves considerable simplification. The equations for two-dimensional motions in the considered plane are then applied to the study of Rayleigh waves in a rotating half-space with the initial stress parallel to its boundary and the preferred direction of transverse isotropy either parallel to or normal to the boundary within the sagittal plane. The secular equation governing the wave speed is then derived for a general strain–energy function in the plane strain specialization, which involves only two material parameters. The results are illustrated graphically, first by showing how the wave speed depends on the material parameters and the rotation without specifying the constitutive law and, second, for a simple material model to highlight the effects of the rotation and initial stress on the surface wave speed.