Those wonderful elastic waves

TL;DR

This paper provides a comprehensive overview of elastic waves in various media, discussing their properties, interactions at interfaces, and surface phenomena, with a focus on anisotropic media reflection characteristics.

Contribution

It introduces a unified approach to analyzing elastic wave behaviors, including polarization, speeds, and reflection with mode conversion, especially highlighting critical angles in anisotropic media.

Findings

Reflection of quasi transverse waves involves three critical angles.

Elastic wave properties depend on isotropic or anisotropic media.

Surface wave behaviors are characterized in the context of interface interactions.

Abstract

We consider in a simple and general way elastic waves in isotropic and anisotropic media, their polarization, speeds, reflection from interfaces with mode conversion, and surface waves. Reflection of quasi transverse waves in anisotropic media from a free surface is shown to be characterized by three critical angles.