Dispersion phenomena in symmetric pre-stressed layered elastic structures

The dispersion relation associated with a symmetric three layer structure, composed of compressible, pre-stressed elastic layers, is derived. This mathematically elaborate transcendental equation gives phase speed as an implicit function of wave number. Numerical solutions are established to show a wide range of dispersion behaviour which is delicately dependent on the material parameters and pre-stress in each layer. Particularly interesting behaviour is observed within the short wave (high wave number) regime, with six possible cases of short wave liming behaviour shown possible. Within each of these, a short wave asymptotic analysis is carried out, resulting in a set of approximations which provide explicit relationships between phase speed and wave number. It is envisaged that these approximations may prove helpful to approximate numerical truncation errors associated with impact response, as well as providing excellent first approximations for particularly (numerically) challenging sets of material parameters.