EXISTENCE AND UNIQUENESS OF STONELEY WAVES

The basic existence-uniqueness theory for Stoneley waves propagating a long a plane interface between different isotropic elastic media is re -examined, using a matrix formulation of the secular equation. The res ulting development is appreciably simpler than previous treatments of the theory. The domain of existence of Stoneley waves and the limiting curves forming its outer boundary are characterized in terms of coord inates beta1(2)/beta2(2) and mu2/mu1 where mu1, mu2 are the shear modu li and beta1, beta2 the speeds of transverse plane waves in the consti tuent media. The equations of the limiting curves are given explicitly and exemplified numerically.