Theoretical and experimental studies of surface waves on solid uid interfaces when the value of the uid sound

d velocity is located between the shear and the longitudinal ones in the solid
de ric Padilla, Michel de Billy, and Ge rard Quentin Fre
Paris 7 Denis Diderot, Groupe de Physique de Solides CNRS UMR 7588, Tour 23, Universite 2 place Jussieu, 75251 Paris, France

Received 12 May 1998; accepted for publication 31 March 1999 The existence of two surface waves propagating on a plane soliduid interface is demonstrated when the value of the uid sound velocity is located between the shear and the longitudinal ones in the solid. First, the ScholteStoneley dispersion equation is studied analytically and numerically to nd the roots corresponding to the Stoneley and the Rayleigh waves. The anatomy of each one is then described with the formalism of the evanescent plane waves: both waves are unleaky. Finally, the results are conrmed experimentally by measuring the times of ight on a Plexiglaswater interface and on a PVCwater interface. 1999 Acoustical Society of America. S0001-49669902607-7 PACS numbers: 43.35.Pt HEB

INTRODUCTION

Two surface waves may propagate on a plane solid liquid interface: the generalized Rayleigh wave and the Stoneley wave.1,2 Results are well established when the uid sound velocity c F is lower than the velocities of the bulk shear wave c S and the bulk longitudinal wave c L in the solid. In that case the generalized Rayleigh wave propagates with a phase velocity slightly lower than c S and radiates energy into the uid. The Stoneley wave phase velocity is lower than the velocities in the three medium. The main objective of this paper is to study the existence of such surface waves on interfaces when the uid sound velocity is larger than the velocity of the bulk shear wave in the solid: c S c F c L . We may call these types of interfaces plasticuid interfaces by opposition to the metal uid interface as described in the previous paragraph. It seems that few works are concerned with the plastic uid interface. Following the results of Brower et al.,3 if such surface waves exist, they would be unleaky, because their phase velocities are close or lower than c S . Consequently, it should be very difcult to generate them from the uid. This may be the reason why the existence of these waves was not detected with the study of plastic plates by reection or transmission coefcient.46 Nevertheless, the Stoneley wave has been recently observed experimentally on a PVCwater PVC: polyvinyl chloride interface, with a ` s showed highly viscoelastic type of PVC.7 Favretto-Anre that a decaying Stoneley wave could propagate on this interface, but didnt study the Rayleigh wave. Numerical studies of the dispersion equation for plane interfaces may be found in the domain of geophysics. Some authors searched the roots of the equation to describe the pulse which could propagate along the interface with an integral method. They were interested in the roots which should have a physical signicance. Gilbert and Laster8 studied the solidsolid problem and
666 J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 106 (2), August 1999

relaxed one of the solids to a uid, but only with c F c S . Pilant9 did the same for all uid sound velocities. But he predicted that only the Stoneley wave should exist when c S c F c L . Phinney10 treated the soliduid interface, but, in the real root corresponding to the Stoneley wave, he looked only for complex roots. Now as we might see further, when c S c F , the Rayleigh root becomes real. Our purpose is to show numerically and experimentally that a Rayleigh wave and a Stoneley wave may propagate on a general plasticuid interface. To carry out this work, we use the formalism of the evanescent plane waves11,12 coupled with an analysis of the ScholteStoneley dispersion equation. For this last point we follow the approach of Ansell,13 who studied all the solutions of the equation. Each of these solutions is located on a Riemann sheet and the anatomy of the corresponding surface wave is described. By comparing with the metaluid case, the numerical study is limited to the roots which become the Rayleigh root of the plastic vacuum interface as the density of the uid decreases to zero. When these two roots are found it is then possible to show that the two corresponding surface waves are not leaky. Finally, the results are conrmed experimentally by measuring the times of ight on a Plexiglaswater interface and on a PVCwater interface. Section I is devoted to a brief survey of the general properties of the evanescent plane waves. It is a very useful tool to understand the structure of waves as was done for the generalized Rayleigh wave,14 the circumferential Rayleigh wave,15 and the Lamb waves.16 In Sec. II, we study analytically the ScholteStoneley equation and its different solutions. Particular attention is brought to the roots corresponding to the Rayleigh and Stoneley surface waves. In Sec. III, these solutions are calculated as the density of the uid decreases to zero. It is shown that on a plastic
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uid interface a Rayleigh wave may be dened which propagates with no loss. Finally we present in Sec. IV experimental results concerning the existence of these waves and we show that good agreement exists between the numerical predictions and the experimental measurements.
I. FORMALISM OF THE EVANESCENT PLANE WAVES

TABLE I. The four functions S j when K Fz is on the top Riemann sheet, i.e., 0. The functions S j are obtained by replacing K iz by K iz . when K Fz Sign of Function
2 2 2 S 1 ( K x ) K Fz 4 K x K Sz K Lz ( K 2 S 2 K x ) K4 K S Lz 2 2 2 S 2 ( K x ) K Fz 4 K x K Sz K Lz ( K 2 S 2 K x ) K4 K S Lz 2 2 2 S 3 ( K x ) K Fz 4 K x K Sz K Lz ( K 2 S 2 K x ) K4 K S Lz 2 2 2 S 4 ( K x ) K Fz 4 K x K Sz K Lz ( K 2 S 2 K x ) 4 K S K Lz

K Fz

K Sz

K Lz

In the solid and in the uid, we shall describe the waves with the formalism of the evanescent plane waves as presented in Refs. 11 and 12. We set out here briey the main properties that we shall use in the next sections. Let the acoustic displacement vector d or any other acoustical disturbances be d r, t D0 exp i K r t , 1 where D0 is the complex amplitude vector; K K K is the complex wave vector where K stands for the wave vector and K for the attenuation vector; r is the spatial coordinate; is the angular frequency and t is the time. The wave propagates in the K direction and is exponentially damped in the K direction. In a free isotropic medium, the acoustic displacement d must satisfy the Helmholtz equation, and so the wave vector K obeys the dispersion equation: K K K 2 i, 2

soliduid interface is obtained by writing the continuity of the normal acoustic displacement and the continuity of the normal stress tensor on the plane z 0.1 The Scholte Stoneley equation for the wave number K x along the interface is obtained by writing the acoustic displacement in the uid and in the solid as in the relation Eq. 1:
2 2 2 4 S K x K Fz 4 K 2 x K Sz K Lz K S 2 K x K S K Lz 0, 5

where the dimensionless parameter F / S is the ratio between the uid density and the solid density; and:
2 K iz K 2 i Kx

where the subscript i will differentiate the three types of homogeneous waves, i.e., i F designates the longitudinal wave in the uid, i L the longitudinal wave in the solid and i S the shear wave in the solid. Ki is the wave number of the homogeneous plane wave i and Ki / c i where c i is the phase velocity of the homogeneous plane wave i. Separating real and imaginary parts of Eq. 2 leads to the system:
2 K 2 K 2 i K ,

3 4

K K 0,

where K K . We deduce from Eq. 4 that the propagation direction of the evanescent plane wave is always orthogonal to its damping direction. The phase velocity in the direction of propagation is c ph / K . Because of the inequality K Ki , which comes from Eq. 3, the evanescent plane wave propagates in medium i with a velocity c ph lower than the velocity c i .
II. THE SCHOLTESTONELEY EQUATION

is the z component of the complex wave vector Ki ( i F , L , S ) which satises the dispersion Eq. 2. A surface wave as the generalized Rayleigh wave14 or the Stoneley wave17 can be decomposed as a set of three evanescent plane waves: a longitudinal wave in the uid, a longitudinal wave and a shear wave in the solid. Each of the three complex wave vector Ki has a projection K x on the interface which is the solution of Eq. 5. This component veries the generalized DescartesSnell laws.18 The component K iz is a complex square root. It may be written on two Riemann sheets which correspond to the square root with a positive real part and the square root with a negative real part. The top Riemann sheet is dened by:

arg K iz 2 2

The presentation of the ScholteStoneley equation in this section is based on the work of Ansell.13 Some of these results are developed and physical interpretations are given with the formalism used in the previous section.
A. Analysis of the equation

The plane soliduid interface may be treated as a twodimensional problem without loss of generality. A coordinate system attached to the interface is noted ( x, z). The z axis is normal to the boundary z 0 and the x axis is parallel to it. The dispersion equation for a wave propagating at the
667 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 106, No. 2, August 1999

and is noted with a sign. Equation 5 contains three square roots K iz . The Riemann surface for the function S also has eight sheets which are designated by a group of three signs ( , , ). Each of the signs stands for the Riemann sheet of ( K Fz , K Sz , K Lz ). And so the function S gives rise to eight separate functions, noted S j and S j with j 1,2,3,4. These functions are written in Table I. The product of the four functions S j is a polynomial of degree eight in K 2 x with real coefcients. This polynomial may be solved with a classical procedure here the Bairstows method. Each root K x 0 is the solution of one of the four equations S j ( K x 0 ) 0. To assign the root to its corresponding equation, each function S j is tested with the different solutions. If K x 0 is a zero of the polynomial, the conjuPadilla et al.: Surface waves on plastic uid interfaces 667

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FIG. 2. The normalized Rayleigh root K R / KF in the complex K x plane, / KF when F decreases from 1 to 0 the origin of the abscissa is K x 0.5132). The black point is the solution K R for the metaluid interface, the black triangle is the solution K R 0 for the metalvacuum interface. The materials used are steel ( S 7.8; c L 5740 m/s; c S 3112 m/s and water ( F 1; c F 1480 m/s.

FIG. 1. a Structure of a surface wave corresponding to a complex root which is on the Riemann sheet ( , , ). It is the structure of the Rayleigh wave on a metaluid interface. b Structure of a surface wave corresponding to a real root which is greater than Ki in the three medium and 0, K Sz 0 and K Lz 0. It is the structure of the Stoneley solution for K Fz wave on a metaluid interface.

roots of Eq. 5 move in the complex K x plane and the root of one function S j ( K x ) 0 may become the root of another function S n j ( K x ) 0 as it crosses a branch cut. But as noticed by Ansell this occurs only at K x KS or K x KS /2. With this analysis, we know on which Riemann sheet is located each solution K x 0 of Eq. 5. The structure of the corresponding interface wave is also completely dened: The propagation and the damping direction of the waves in the and K iz as uid and in the solid are xed by the signs of K iz illustrated by Fig. 1.
III. NUMERICAL STUDY OF THE SCHOLTESTONELEY EQUATION

x and the opposite K x are also zeroes. So it gate value K 0 0 is possible to restrain the study in the rst quadrant of the complex K x plane. It means that the solutions of Eq. 5 with 0 and K x 0 may be studied only. Kx
B. Location of the roots

We focus here on the differences between the solutions of the ScholteStoneley equation for the generalized Rayleigh wave and the Stoneley wave on two types of interface: rst the metaluid interface ( c F c S c L ) and then the plasticuid interface ( c S c F c L ). For each solution, the structure of the wave is detailed.
A. Metaluid interface

There are three branch points in the complex K x plane for the function S at K x Ki where K iz is zero. There are also three branch cuts on the real axis, the intersection between two Riemann sheets, which are:
Ki ; .

1. Rayleigh wave

0. The On these intervals, K iz is purely imaginary, and K iz problem of the choice of the sign of the square roots remains. , i.e., K iz 0 and In that case, the two possible values of K iz 0, are tested for the numerical computation, and the K iz for which K x is a zero of Eq. 5 is then detersign of K iz mined. In the next section we study the values of the roots of Eq. 5 as the current parameter decreases from F / S to zero. Indeed, computations have been done from F 1 to F 0 to study the limit procedure from the solidwater interface to the solidvacuum interface. In this situation, the
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The particular complex zero of Eq. 5 which is called the Rayleigh zero K R is dened by the limit procedure when the density of the uid decreases to zero. The Scholte Stoneley equation becomes the Rayleigh equation and the generalized Rayleigh wave becomes a free Rayleigh wave. When F 0, the imaginary part of K R vanishes and its real part is the real Rayleigh zero for the solidvacuum interface K R 0 as illustrated by the curve in Fig. 2. This solution is located on the Riemann sheet ( , , ). The structure of the wave is the one of a leaky surface wave. As shown in Fig. 1a, its amplitude is exponentially damped in the directions normal to the interface and along the interface during the propagation. As the leaky Rayleigh wave propagates, energy is radiated into the liquid. The inPadilla et al.: Surface waves on plastic uid interfaces 668

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FIG. 4. The structure of the Rayleigh wave on a PVCwater interface as a set of three evanescent plane waves.

/ KF as a function of F . The FIG. 3. The two normalized real roots K x black square is the Rayleigh root, the black triangle the Stoneley root at the plasticuid interface. The black point is the Rayleigh root at the plastic vacuum interface. Characteristics of the materials used are for PVC ( S 1.56; c S 1050 m/s; c L 2380 m/s and for water ( F 1; c F 1480 m/s.

0, K Sz ley wave. Again the solution is found when K Fz 0. Therefore the corresponding wave has the 0 and K Lz same structure as on the metaluid interface.
2. Rayleigh wave

crease of amplitude in the liquid away from the interface can be explained by taking into account the effect of bounded beams present in real experimental situations. A decomposition of a bounded beams into plane waves shows that the wave is limited in space and that its amplitude is nite.14 The existence of this leaky surface wave is submitted to certain conditions.3 As the phase velocity along the interface c R is always close to c S , the velocity c S must be greater than the velocity c F in the uid. If not, the Rayleigh angle of radiation would be an imaginary angle.
2. Stoneley wave

The second real root K R exhibits two different types of numerical behavior as F decreases to zero. It depends on the relative values of the parameter and the factor c given by the relationship13

1 KF /KS2 1 KL /KS2

The Stoneley zero K ST is dened as the greatest real root of Eq. 5. It has been tabulated by Strick and Ginzbarg in Ref. 19. K ST is greater than Ki in the three medium, and so the phase velocity of the surface wave along the boundary is lower than the velocities c F , c S and c L . Consequently the components K iz are purely imaginary, 0, K Sz 0 and K Lz and the solution is found when K Fz 0. Therefore the structure of the wave is different than the structure of the generalized Rayleigh wave.17 The direction of propagation is along the interface and the direction of damping is normal to it as plotted in Fig. 1b. Its amplitude decreases in both media away from the interface. The Stoneley wave is lossless in its direction of propagation.
B. Plasticuid interface

When compared to the metaluid interface case, the plasticuid interface case is rather tricky. They are two real roots of the ScholteStoneley equation which go to K R 0 in the limit F 0, as illustrated by the curve in Fig. 3. As we shall see, these two roots may be related to a Stoneley wave and a Rayleigh wave.
1. Stoneley wave

The greatest of the two real roots of Eq. 5 is also greater than Ki in the three medium. As we have seen in the previous Subsection III A 2, this root is related to the Stone669 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 106, No. 2, August 1999

The parameter may be greater or lower than c resulting from the density of the plastic material. We propose an example for each situation. Note that in every case, K R is greater than Ki in the three medium. Consequently, the components K iz are purely imaginary like for the Stoneley wave. a. PVC water interface: c . In the case of the PVCwater interface, is lower than c . For any values of , the 0, K Sz 0 and K Lz 0. Hence, solution is found when K Fz the structure of the wave is different from the structure of the Stoneley wave because the attenuation vector in the uid is directed toward the interface as shown in Fig. 4. This structure is coherent with the one at the metaluid interface. It comes to a limit when the Rayleigh angle of radiation increases to 90 degrees. b. Plexiglas water interface: c . With the Plexiglaswater interface, where is greater than c , a change of determination is found in the numerical behavior of the root as F decreases to zero. It can be decomposed into three steps, as illustrated by the curve in Fig. 5. At rst, 0, K Sz 0 and for c , the solution is found when K Fz 0. Next, at the point c , K R equals KS and K Sz K Lz 0. For this particular value of , the surface wave is a shear wave propagating along the interface. Thereafter, for occurs: K R becomes a c , a change of the sign of K Sz 0, K Sz 0 and K Lz 0. It is then the same solution for K Fz determination as for the PVC-water interface. c. Synthesis for the plastic uid interface. On both types of plastic-uid interface, the Stoneley wave and the Rayleigh wave have a phase velocity along the boundary which veries the following relation:
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FIG. 5. The normalized real Rayleigh root K R / KF as a function of F . The three steps are: full line for F 1 to F c S ; particular point F c S when K R / KF KS / KF ; dashed line for F c S to F 0.

c ST c R c S c F c L .

8
FIG. 6. Schematic diagram of the experimental device. Em emitter transducer, Re receptor transducer, S bulk shear wave, ( R 0 ) free Rayleigh wave, R generalized Rayleigh wave, ST Stoneley wave.

As we have seen, it seems possible to dene a Rayleigh wave on solidliquid interfaces even when the sound velocity in the uid is larger than the shear wave velocity in the solid. Unlike the case when c S c F , such a surface wave is unleaky. To our knowledge, it is the rst time that this Rayleigh wave is mentioned, even if it has been predicted numerically by Ansell.13 This is not surprising if we consider that most of the former experimental studies of surface waves and Lamb waves with plastic materials have been made on reection and transmission coefcients.4,5 As this wave is not a leaky wave, it should be very difcult to generate it from the uid. These results have to be compared with the works about pseudo-Rayleigh waves. As in geophysics in the references we have cited,810 the propagation of surface waves on plane interfaces has been treated with integral methods. In this context, there is one sheet of integration wherein lies the Stoneley root of the dispersion equation for soliduid interfaces. By deformation of the branch line contours onto lower Riemann surfaces, the contribution of the roots lying on these lower sheets may be underscored. It is the case of the generalized Rayleigh wave, which is also called pseudoRayleigh waves: The corresponding root of the dispersion equation is located on a different sheet from the integration sheet. However, only the complex roots have been studied, which correspond to leaking pseudo-surface waves. In a way, we can say that we study here a pseudoRayleigh wave, but in a particular case where this wave is not leaky. This was made possible by a direct study of the ScholteStoneley dispersion equation which leads to a different approach of the problem. The interpretation using the formalism of the evanescent plane waves induced us to think on a different interpretation of the structure of the waves. An experimental conrmation of their existence is presented in the next section.
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IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

The purpose of the experiments is to measure arrival times for the two surface waves. The phase velocities deduced from the numerical computations for K R and K ST might then be compared to the experimental ones deduced from the times of ight on the sample.
A. Experimental device

These experiments are based on the technique used by de Billy20 to generate surface waves on wedges. The plane interface may be considered as the limit case of a 180 degrees apex wedge. Two shear contact transducers Em, Re are coupled with the extremities of the faces of a rectangular sample Fig. 6. The emitter is driven with short pulses of 1 MHz central frequency. The direction of the polarization of the transmitters is perpendicular to the interface. At the beginning, the sample is in air and is then partially immersed in water in steps of 4 mm. The experiments are realized at room temperature ( c F 1480 5 m/s. The emitter generates simultaneously a bulk shear wave S and a free Rayleigh surface wave ( R 0 ) at the solidair interface considered as a solidvacuum interface. When the sample is immersed in water, the free Rayleigh wave gives rise to a generalized Rayleigh wave R and a Stoneley wave ST as described in Refs. 21 and 22.
B. Recorded wavetrains

The recorded wavetrains obtained with a Plexiglas sample of 140 mm long for different lengths of immersion z are presented in Fig. 7. At the Plexiglasvacuum interface, only the bulk shear wave S and the free Rayleigh wave ( R 0 ) are present. The arrival time of the bulk shear wave is
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TABLE II. Characteristics of the solids and of the surface waves. Longitudinal and transverse velocities c L and c S have been measured with an accuracy of 0.1%. Material Plexiglas PVC

S
1.18 1.56

c L m/s 2745 2236

c S m/s 1390 1112

c R 0 m/s 1295 1040

c R m/s 1363 1110

c ST m/s 1058 914

move apart one from the other. As the velocity of the Stoneley wave is clearly below the velocity of the free Rayleigh wave numerical values are presented in the next Subsection IV C, the corresponding echo arrives later as z increases. On the contrary, the velocity of the generalized Rayleigh wave is greater than the one of the free Rayleigh wave, and is close to c S . As the immersed distance increases, the echo of this surface wave arrives earlier and earlier and becomes indistinguishable from the echo of the shear bulk wave. The same kind of echoes have been recorded with the PVC sample.
C. Arrival times

The arrival times have been calculated and measured on a Plexiglas sample ( L 140 mm and on a PVC sample ( L 100 mm. When a length z of the solid is immersed, the arrival times correspond to the propagation of a free Rayleigh wave on the distance L z , and the propagation of a generalized Rayleigh wave or a Stoneley wave on the distance z. Thus the theoretical arrival times t R of the Rayleigh wave and t ST of the Stoneley wave are, respectively: t R 1 Lz z L 1 z , c R0 c R c R0 c R0 c R

t ST

1 Lz z L 1 z , c R0 c ST c R 0 c R 0 c ST

10

FIG. 7. Wavetrains obtained at the Plexiglaswater interface 140 mm long for different lengths of immersion. a Free sample; b z 8 mm; c z 16 mm; d z 24 mm; e z 32 mm; f z 40 mm; g z 48 mm; h z 56 mm.

independent of the presence of the uid and its amplitude remains constant. A generalized Rayleigh wave R and a Stoneley wave ST appear when the solid is immersed. It is interesting to notice that the echoes of the two surface waves
671 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 106, No. 2, August 1999

where c R 0 designates the celerity of the free Rayleigh wave. The calculated values of the velocities are given in Table II. The corresponding variations are linear with a negative slope for the Rayleigh wave because c R c R 0 ), and with a positive slope for the Stoneley wave because c R 0 c ST) as seen in Fig. 8 where the theoretical and experiment arrival times are plotted. For the bulk shear wave, t S L / c S . The comparison between the theoretical predictions and the experimental values is good. The differences do not exceed 2%. A better agreement is observed for the Rayleigh wave. It comes certainly from the fact that the beginning of the Stoneley echo is not clearly dened, which produces consequently an inaccuracy on the experimental measurement. One could imagine that a longitudinal wave is generated at the airwater boundary, and that the Rayleigh echo detected is an artifact. The arrival times t F of this expected wave have also been plotted in Fig. 8 as a function of z. These have been supposed for the calculations as due to the propagation of a free Rayleigh wave on a distance L z and of a longitudinal wave in the uid on distance z. So we have t F Lz z L 1 1 z . c R0 c F c R0 c R0 c F

11

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Favretto,7 which dealt with a viscoelastic PVC sample of a different type. The author showed that, for this type of material, the Stoneley wave is actually attenuated during its propagation. But the material is not the same as used in our experiments. Other hypothesis are studied.
V. CONCLUSION

FIG. 8. Variation of the arrival times of the Rayleigh wave and the Stoneley wave as a function of the immersed length z on Plexiglaswater a interface and PVCwater interface b. Theoretical arrival times full lines are compared with the measured arrival times for the Stoneley wave black points and for the Rayleigh wave black squares. Empty circles indicate the calculated arrival times of a longitudinal wave in the uid.

The Stoneley and the Rayleigh roots of the Scholte Stoneley equation are studied analytically and numerically. With the analytical approach, it is possible to locate each root on the Riemann surface of the ScholteStoneley equation, and so to describe the anatomy of the corresponding wave by using the formalism of the evanescent plane waves. The main objective of this paper is to know if surface waves could exist on plasticuid interfaces, where the uid sound velocity is larger than the shear wave velocity in the solid. To determine numerically the proper roots of the equation, a comparison is made with the case of the metaluid interface. Two roots are found, which go to the Rayleigh root of the solidvacuum interface as the density of the uid decreases to zero. One of the two is the Stoneley root, and so the second may be dened as the Rayleigh root. The study of the corresponding anatomy shows that these two surface waves are not leaky and propagate with no loss in their direction propagation along the boundary. To verify experimentally these conclusions, times of ight are measured on a Plexiglas and on a PVC sample. They are found to be in very good agreement with the theoretical predictions. Therefore, the existence of the two waves is conrmed. A problem appears with the decay of amplitude of the Rayleigh wave as the immersed length of the sample increases, which is not consistent with the theory. A test is made with a viscoelastic model, but the results are not conclusive. This question still awaits answers.
I. A. Viktorov, Rayleigh and Lamb Waves Plenum, New York, 1967. L. M. Brekhovskikh, Waves in Layered Media Academic, New York, 1980. 3 N. G. Brower, D. E. Himberger, and W. G. Mayer, Restrictions on the existence of leaky Rayleigh waves, IEEE Trans. Sonics Ultrason. SU-26, 306308 1979. 4 T. J. Plona, M. Behravesh, and W. G. Mayer, Rayleigh and Lamb waves at liquid solid boundaries, Ultrasonics 13, 171175 1975. 5 W. Madigosky and R. Fiorito, Modal resonance analysis of acoustic transmission and reection losses in viscoelastic plates, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 65, 11051115 1979. 6 e and M. Deschamps, Interactions dondes planes he te roge ` nes P. Cheve ` faces paralle ` les dissipative: Confrontation the orie au sein dune lame a rience in French, Acustica 76, 224230 1992. expe 7 ` s, Theoretical study of the Stoneley-Scholte wave at the N. Favretto-Anre interface between an ideal uid and a viscoelastic solid, Acustica 82, 829838 1996. 8 F. Gilbert and S. J. Laster, Excitation and propagation of pulses on a interface, Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am. 52, 299319 1962. 9 W. L. Pilant, Complex roots of the Stoneley-wave equation, Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am. 62, 285299 1972. 10 R. A. Phinney, Propagation of leaking interface waves, Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am. 51, 527555 1961. 11 e, Les ondes planes e vanescentes dans les uides parfaits et les B. Poire lastiques in French, J. Acoust. 2, 205216 1989. solides e 12 Ph. Boulanger and M. Hayes, Bivectors and Waves in Mechanics and Optics Chapman & Hall, London, 1993. 13 J. H. Ansell, The roots of the Stoneley wave equation for liquid-solid interfaces, Pure Appl. Geophys. 94, 172188 1972. 14 e, The formalism of the evanescent G. Quentin, A. Derem, and B. Poire
1 2

As c F is greater than c R 0 , the corresponding variations are linear and show a negative slope. The calculated values of t F are quite different from these of t R . It can be concluded that no mistake was made concerning the Rayleigh echo. These results establish that the echo may be identied as due to a Rayleigh wave. From the records, it is seen that as the immersed length increases, the amplitude of the Stoneley waves remains constant. It propagates with no loss on the plasticuid interface. On the other side, the Rayleigh echo decreases as z increases. This effect has not yet been explained and is not consistent with the theory: The surface waves are supposed to be lossless. Computations have been made with a model of viscoelastic solid to take account of a dissipation, but it misreads the observed phenomena. Indeed, these computations show that the attenuation which is due to viscoelasticity should be greater on the Stoneley wave than on the Rayleigh wave. But, as seen in Fig. 7, only the Rayleigh wave is attenuated. This case is different from the one observed by
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plane waves and its importance in the study of the generalized Rayleigh wave, J. Acoust. 3, 321336 1990. 15 e, G. Quentin, and M. Talmant, Rayleigh circumferenF. Padilla, B. Poire tial wave and evanescent plane waves in preparation. 16 O. Poncelet and M. Deschamps, Lamb waves generated by complex harmonic inhomogeneous plane waves, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 102, 292 300 1997. 17 e and F. Luppe , Evanescent plane waves and the ScholteB. Poire Stoneley interface wave, J. Acoust. 4, 575588 1991. 18 M. Deschamps, Reection and refraction of the evanscent plane wave on plane interfaces, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 96, 28412848 1994.

19

E. Strick and A. S. Ginzbarg, Stoneley-wave velocities for a uid-solid interface, Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am. 46, 281292 1956. 20 M. de Billy, On the scattering of antisymetric edge modes, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 101, 32613269 1997. 21 M. de Billy, Inuence of the wetting and the angle of immersion on the generation of a Scholte wave: Experimental investigation, Phys. Lett. 96A, 8587 1983. 22 M. de Billy and G. Quentin, Experimental study of the Scholte wave propagation on a plane surface partially immersed in a liquid, J. Appl. Phys. 54, 43144322 1983.

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