THE BREWSTER WAVE-NUMBER CONCEPT FOR ELASTODYNAMICS

The existence of a Brewster wave number is demonstrated for the case o f plane-wave reflection by a specularly smooth, planar interface joini ng two homogeneous, linearly elastic, isotropic solid half-spaces. Suc h a wave number is numerically shown to exist for two material combina tions: steel-aluminum and steel-brass. The wave number can be such tha t plane waves are either propagating or evanescent. Since the calculat ed Brewster wave number is not dependent upon which of the two half-sp aces contains the incident plane waves, it appears to be an intrinsic property of the bimaterial interface and hence may be useful in the ch aracterization of such interfaces.