Fundamental Skin Effect in Anisotropic Solid Mechanics*

Ah&act--It is shown that in solid mechanics a skin effect is associated with anisotropy. Near a free surface or a surface of discontinuity certain components of the stress field vary rapidly from zero to a maximum within a thin skin. The thickness of this skin tends to vanish for increasing anisotropy. A stress concentration also occurs whereby certain stress components are amplified within the skin thickness. The analysis is carried out for a medium with or without initial stress and includes the case of surface instability, internal buckling and surface wave propagation. The results presented in the context of elasticity theory are on the whole valid for viscoelastic media by the principle of correspondence. The results are also applicable to multilayered or fibrous compound materials which, on the average, behave approximately as anisotropic continuous media.