Far field time-harmonic Green's functions for three-dimensional transversel
y isotropic solids are obtained in this paper. Such functions are important
for practical purposes since the evaluation of the exact general solution
presents serious numerical difficulties for far field points. The obtained
Green's functions can be efficiently evaluated for any transversely isotrop
ic material. A boundary element code for the analysis of wave scattering pr
oblems including large regions of transversely isotropic materials has been
written. The general or the present far field Green's functions are used a
t each point in the boundary element implementation depending on the distan
ce between collocation and observation point. The scattering of elastic wav
es by a cavity located in both quasi-isotropic and transversely isotropic s
olids is studied. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.