Scattering of a Plane Elastic Wave From Objects Near an Interface

The displacement field generated by the reflection and refraction of plane (time harmonic) elastic waves by finite obstacles of arbitrary shape, in the neighborhood of a plane interface between two elastic media, is investigated. The technique employed allows a consistent formulation of the problem for both two and three dimensions, and is not limited either to boundary shapes which are level surfaces in appropriate coordinate systems, i.e., circular cylinders, spheres, etc., or to closed boundary curves or surfaces. The approach is due to Twersky, and has been applied to many problems of the scattering of electromagnetic waves. The method consists of expressing the net field due to all multiple scattering in terms of the field reflected from each boundary in isolation when subjected to an incident plane elastic wave. Thus the technique makes use of more elemental scattering problems whose solutions are extant. By way of illustration, a numerical solution to the scattering of a plane elastic wave by a rigid circular cylindrical obstacle adjacent to a plane free surface is considered.