On the backward Lamb waves near thickness resonances in anisotropic plates

A closed-form expression for the leading-order dispersion coefficient, describing the trend of Lamb-wave branches at their onset from thickness resonances, is derived for an arbitrary anisotropic plate. The sign of this coefficient and hence of the in-plane group velocity near cutoffs decides the existence or non-existence of the backward Lamb waves without a necessity to calculate the dispersion branches. A link between the near-cutoff dispersion of Lamb waves and the curvature of bulk-wave slowness curves in a sagittal plane is analyzed. It is established that a locally concave slowness curve of a bulk mode entails the backward Lamb waves at the onset of branches emerging from this bulk mode resonances of high enough order. A simple sufficient condition for no backward Lamb waves near the resonances associated with a convex slowness curve is also noted. Two special cases are discussed: the first involves the coupled resonances of degenerate bulk waves, and the second concerns quasi-degenerate resonances which give rise to pairs of dispersion branches with a quasilinear positive and negative onset. Occasions of the backward Lamb waves in isotropic plate materials are tabulated.