542 M. Romeo
3. Transient propagation and wave splitting
We assume here that the subset V consists of the half-space {x, y, z ∈ R
3
| x 0} and denote by e
1
the unit
normal to the plane boundary of V . Let us suppose that a uniform displacement u
t and a uniform traction
w t = T0, te
1
are given at the surface x = 0 for t 0, while no deformation occurs for t 6 0 throughout V . We look for solutions to the one-dimensional problem
ρ∂
2 t
u x, t = ∂
x
w x, t,
x ∈ R
+
, t ∈ R
+
, 10
where ρ is the mass density of the medium and w = Te
1
. Equation 10 splits into a couple of scalar equations which, accounting for 2 and 7, read
ρ∂
2 t
u
k
= ∂
x
w
k
, 11-a
ρ∂
2 t
u
⊥
= ∂
x
w
⊥
, 11-b
where u
k
= u
1
and u
⊥
represents one of the two components u
2
and u
3
, and where w
k
x, t = 4
3 µ + κ
∂
x
u
k
x, t +
Z
t
4 3
µ + κ G
′
τ ∂
x
u
k
x, t − τ dτ, 12-a
w
⊥
x, t = µ∂
x
u
⊥
x, t +
Z
t
µG
′
τ ∂
x
u
⊥
x, t − τ dτ. 12-b
In the following we shall consider one of the two scalar problems given by 11-a, 12-a and by 11-b and 12-b for the quantities u and w which will be taken as the displacement and the traction of pure compressive
or pure shear motions. Posing v = ∂
t
u and taking into account that ∂
x
ux, 0 = 0 for x ∈ R
+
, we can rewrite our problem in the following form
ρ∂
t
vx, t = ∂
x
wx, t, 13-a
∂
t
wx, t = σ ∂
x
vx, t +
Z
t
G
′
τ vx, t − τ dτ 13-b
for x ∈ R
+
and t ∈ R
+
, together with the boundary conditions v
0, t = v t,
14-a w
0, t = w t
14-b and the initial conditions
vx, 0 = 0,
15-a wx,
0 = 0. 15-b
In Eq. 13 σ =
4 3
µ + κ for compressive motions and σ = µ for shear motions. According to the viscoelastic model outlined in the previous section, we assume that Gτ has a bounded first derivative in R
+
. Hence the integral operator K defined as
Kf t = f t +
Z
t
G
′
τ f t − τ dτ 16
Wave splitting in linear viscoelasticity 543
for any f ∈ L
1
R
+
, is invertible and the system 13 can be written as ∂
x
v w
= 0 σ
−1
K
−1
ρ ∂
t
v w
. 17
The operator K
−1
can be easily derived from 16 on applying the Laplace transform. We obtain K
−1
f t =
L
−1
1 sLGs
· f t
18-a for any f ∈ L
−1
R
+
, where the asterisk denotes time convolution, i.e. a · bt =
Z
t
at − τ bτ dτ. 18-b
In order to obtain a diagonalized form of the matrix at the right-hand side of Eq. 17, we introduce the quantities v
+
, v
− T
as follows v
w =
1 1
−σ P
∗
σ P
∗
v
+
v
−
=: D v
+
v
−
19 and equivalently
v
+
v
−
= D
−1
v w
= 1
2 1 −σ
−1
S
∗
1 σ
−1
S
∗
v w
, 20
where P t and St are suitable functions in L
1
R
+
, to be determined according to the condition S · P · f t = f t
21 for any f ∈ L
1
R
+
. We observe that, in view of Eq. 15 we have v
+
x, 0 = v
−
x, 0 = 0, ∀x ∈ R
+
. 22
Substitution of 19 into 17 and the use of 20 allows us to obtain ∂
x
v
+
v
−
= D
−1
0 −σ K
−1
ρ D∂
t
v
+
v
−
23-a =
1 2
−
1 c
2
S · −K
−1
· P ·
1 c
2
S · +K
−1
· P · −
1 c
2
S · −K
−1
· P ∗
1 c
2
S · +K
−1
· P · ∂
t
v
+
v
−
23-b where c
2
= σρ. In deriving Eq. 23 we have exploited the result ∂
t
Dv
+
, v
− T
= D∂
t
v
+
, v
− T
, which is a consequence of the convolution’s properties and of Eq. 22. We finally impose the diagonalization condition
1 c
2
S − K
−1
· P · f
t = 0 24
for any f ∈ L
1
R
+
. Equations 24 and 21, together with Eq. 18 yield
544 M. Romeo
P t = ± 1
c L
−1
p
sLGs t,
25-a St = ±c
L
−1
1 √
sLGs t
25-b and Eq. 23 becomes
∂
x
v
+
v
−
= −
1 c
Q·
1 c
Q· ∂
t
v
+
v
−
26 with
Qt = L
−1
1 √
sLGs t
27 and where the choice of the sign in 25 has been performed according to the meaning of v
+
and v
−
as forward and backward propagating disturbances. Explicit expressions for P t and Qt = Stc can be derived for
the Maxwell model and the Maxwell–Kelvin model described in Section 2. With the help of a table of Laplace transforms Roberts and Kaufman, 1966, we have
P t = δt exp−t2τ
M
+ E t,
1 2τ
M
, Qt = δt exp−t2τ
M
+ F t,
1 2τ
M
and P t = δt exp−t2τ
2
+ E t,
1 2τ
2
+ E t,
1 2
1 τ
1
+ 1
τ
K
+ E
·, 1
τ
2
· E ·,
1 2
1 τ
1
+ 1
τ
K
t, Qt = δt exp−t2τ
2
+ F t,
1 2τ
2
+ F t,
1 2
1 τ
1
+ 1
τ
K
+ F
·, 1
τ
2
· F ·,
1 2
1 τ
1
+ 1
τ
K
t respectively for the Maxwell model and the Maxwell–Kelvin model with t 0, where δt is the usual Dirac
delta distribution and the functions E and F are given by Et, β = β
I βt + I
1
βt exp−βt,
F t, β = β I
βt + I
1
βt exp−βt,
where I and I
1
are modified Bessel functions.
4. Evaluation of the wave propagator