Group presentation on wave
propagation in a layered body
By
Abadi Gebre
Fekade Abera
Betelhem Solomon
Dire Dawa University
Institute of technology
Ethiopia
October,2018
WAVE PROPAGATION
IN A LAYERED BODY
Wave Propagation
• two general types of waves which travel through or along the crust of
the earth surface namely body waves and surface waves.
• only body waves can only travel through the crust in to the mantle.
Surface waves are restricted to travel along the ground surface.
• and further there are two types of body waves
1. P-waves(primary waves)
2. S-waves(shear waves)
Wave Propagation(continued)
P-waves
• irrotational
• compressional
• include volumetric deformations, but not shear deformations.
• direction of travel (called wave propagation) is parallel to the direction of particle
movement.
S-waves
• shear deformation
• not volumetric deformation
• direction of wave propagation is perpendicular to the direction of particle
movement.
• Body waves travel at velocities that depend on the stiffness and density of the crust
and earth material. Because geologic materials are stiffer in compression than
shear, P-waves travel faster than S-waves.
Wave Propagation(continued)
Two common types of surface wave
1. Raylegh wave
2. Love wave
Raylegh waves
• most important type of surface wave for earthquake engineering
• travel slightly more slowly than S-waves and produce both vertical and horizontal
particle motion
• Low-frequency Raylegh waves produce particle motions at great depths, but the
motion produced by high frequency Raylegh wave is restricted to shallow depths.
• waves with frequency dependent velocities (dispersive)
Love waves
• surface wave that develop in soft surficial layers.
• love waves are also dispersive
Wave propagation in a layered body
A wave in a layer is caused by the interference of the waves propagating in
different directions
A monochromatic wave that spreads zigzag-like along a layer can be
considered to be a wave that envelopes all the sections of a layer and
moves along it.
It differs from the other waves by the velocity that varies, depending on
frequency, i.e., velocity dispersion takes place.
When a body wave strikes a normal boundary between two different
materials, part of the wave energy is reflected and part of it is transmitted
across the boundary.
The behavior of the wave at the boundary is governed by the ratio of the
specific impedances of the materials on either side of the boundary. The
impedance ratio determines the amplitude and polarities of the reflected
and transmitted waves.
Wave propagation in a layered body(continued)
Three modes waves should never be forgotten, i.e. incident wave,
refracted wave and reflected wave.
1. Incident waves
2. Refracted waves
3. Reflected waves
Wave propagation in a layered body(continued)
When a body waves strike boundaries between different materials at
an angle other than 90 degrees, part of the wave energy is reflected
and part of it is refracted as it crosses the boundary.
If the particle of motion is parallel to the boundary, the refracted
waves will be of the same form as the incident wave.
If not, new types of waves will be created. For example, an inclined P-
wave that strikes a horizontal boundary will produce refracted closer
and closer to a vertical direction.
Wave propagation in a layered body(continued)
The amplitude of a stress wave decreases as the wave travels through
layered mediums. There are two primary reasons that cause the
attenuation (decrease) of wave amplitude when travelling through
layered mediums.
1. material damping, is due to absorption of energy by the materials
that the wave is travelling through.
2. radiation damping, results from the spreading of wave energy over
a greater volume of material as it travels away from its source.
Wave propagation in a layered
body(continued)
• In soil,he vertical propagation of shear waves from bedrock to the
ground surface is affected by the thickness of the soil strata and the
stress-strain and damping properties of the soil.
• At the interface both compatibility of displacement and continuity of
stress must be satisfied
Wave propagation in a layered
body(continued)
Impedance ratio
• product of density and velocity of one media divided by the product
of density and velocity of the other media
• determines the magnitude of the amplitudes of the waves
• Has a value ranging from zero up to infinity
Wave propagation in a layered body(continued)
Case-1
• If impedance ratio is less than one, the reflected waves will have a
smaller amplitude than the incident wave and its sign will be
reversed.
Case-2
• If impedance ratio is greater than one, transmitted waves will be
greater than the incident wave amplitude and the amplitude of the
reflected wave will be less than, but have the same sign as the
incident wave.
Wave propagation in a layered body(continued)
Case-3
• If impedance ratio is equal to zero, displacement of the boundary
must be twice displacement of incident wave and reflected wave at
the free end has same amplitude as incident wave with same polarity.
Case-3
• If impedance ratio approaches infinity, zero displacement at end
must be met with stress at boundary is twice that of the incident
wave and reflected wave has same amplitude but opposite polarity as
incident wave.
THANKS FOR ATTENDING
