The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

Advances in Doublet Mechanics: 2. Free Boundary Reflection of P- and S-Waves in Granular Media

Zhang, Miqin; Ferrari, Mauro

UCB/SEMM-1995/04, Dept. of Civil Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 1995-06, 41 pages

The free-boundary reflection of plane waves propagating in macroscopically isotropic granular arrays is studied using the methods of doublet elasticity. The effects of granule size on the reflection characteristics of P- and S-waves of given wavelength are established. It is shown that the critical angles of mode conversion, the phase changes, and the amplitude ratios are scale-related. The classical reflection results of continuum elastodynamics are retrieved in the non-scale and infinite wavelength limits.

Available online: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/documents/SEMM/SEMM-95-04.pdf (1 MB)