TRANSIENT WAVE-PROPAGATION IN A VISCOELASTIC SANDWICH PLATE

This paper examines the propagation of coupled P and S waves in a thre e layer sandwich plate consisting of a viscoelastic core bounded by id entical elastic outer layers. The waves are initiated by an impulsive normal line load applied to the upper surface of the plate. The respon se of the top surface is computed for various values of the creep and relaxation time constants of the core. The results indicate that, for some values of the time constants, the viscoelastic core provides effe ctive damping of the transients, while for others the damping is virtu ally non-existent. In each case the dominant contribution to the far-f ield solution comes from the Rayleigh wave.