Influence of principal material directions of thin orthotropic structures on Rayleigh-edge wave velocity

The paper is concerned with Rayleigh-edge wave propagation in thin panels made of two types of materials. The first one is a long-fiber-reinforced composite and second one is a cubic crystallic structure. The influence of principal material directions on Rayleigh-edge wave velocity is studied theoretically and experimentally. Theoretical solution is based on finite element approach. The propagation in the principal material directions is also investigated analytically. Experimental solution utilizes for non-contact measurements a laser vibrometer. The measurements are carried out on the composite panels. It has been found that Rayleigh wave velocity depends significantly on the directions of material axes. It has been also ascertain that the Rayleigh-edge wave propagation exhibits no geometric dispersion from point of view of the precision and frequency range of computational model.