Transmission of shear waves through a self-reinforced layer sandwiched between two inhomogeneous viscoelastic half-spaces

A problem of reflection and transmission of plane SH-wave through a perfectly conducting self-reinforced elastic layer interposed between two vertically inhomogeneous viscoelastic solid half-spaces has been studied in this paper. The heterogeneity in the half-spaces is taken exponentially varying along vertical direction. Expressions of reflection and transmission coefficients are obtained in closed form and it is found that these coefficients depend on the angle of incidence, inhomogeneity parameters of the half-spaces and on the reinforcement parameters of the sandwiched layer. These coefficients are computed for a specific model against the angle of incidence for different values of inhomogeneity parameters of the half-spaces and for reinforcement parameter of the layer. The results have been presented graphically. The problem studied by Borcherdt [Reflection and refraction of type-II SH waves in elastic and anelastic media. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 1977;67:43–67] has been reduced as a special case.