Attenuation of Harmonic Waves in Layered Media

Abstract

The effective attenuation of harmonic waves propagating through periodically layered elastic media is studied. The waves are taken to be propagating in the direction normal to that of the layering of the media, which has alternate layers of like material. The main restriction of the derivation is that the wavelength of the waves must be long compared with the periodic spacing of the layering. An explicit formula for the attenuation is derived by a perturbation method of analysis. The analysis reveals the basic cause of the attenuation effect in terms of the scattering properties of the medium. Specific examples are studied.