The transient elastodynamic field excited by trans-Rayleigh trains

The elastic wave field due to a surface load in motion over an elastic half-space is investigated. The model serves as a canonical solution for the modelling of high speed ‘trans-Rayleigh’ trains. The analysis presented leads to closed form expressions for the particle displacement, conical waves and Rayleigh waves as separate contributions. The linearized elastodynamic equations are mapped into a proper form in order to apply the Cagniard-de Hoop technique and find closed form time domain solutions for the particle displacement in the subsonic state, transonic state and supersonic state. A special transformation is used that yields closed form space-time domain expressions for the Conical wave as well as the Rayleigh wave contributions. Attention is focussed on surface source speeds in the neighbourhood of the Rayleigh wave speed and speeds that exceed the wave speed of the shear wave. Numerical results for the conical wave field and Rayleigh wave field are presented at observation points just below the surface showing the enormous effects of the Rayleigh wave at source speeds in the near vicinity of the Rayleigh wave speed.