Viscoelastic shear horizontal wave in graded and layered plates

In this paper, viscoelastic shear horizontal (SH) wave propagation in functionally graded material (FGM) plates and laminated plates are investigated. The controlling differential equation in terms of displacements is deduced based on the Kelvin–Voigt viscoelastic theory. The SH wave characteristics is controlled by two elastic constants and their corresponding viscous coefficients. By the Legendre polynomial series method, the asymptotic solutions are obtained. In order to verify the validity of the method, a homogeneous plate is calculated to make a comparison with available data. Through three different graded plates, the influences of gradient shapes on dispersion and attenuation are discussed. The viscous effects on the displacement and stress shapes are illustrated. The different boundary conditions are analyzed. The influential factors of the viscous effect are analyzed. Finally, two multilayered (two layer and five layer) viscoelastic plates that are composed of the same material volume fraction are calculated to show their differences from the graded plate.