Dispersion of Torsional Surface Wave in a Pre-Stressed Heterogeneous Layer Sandwiched Between Anisotropic Porous Half-Spaces Under Gravity

The study of surface waves in a layered media has their viable application in geophysical prospecting. This paper presents an analytical study on the dispersion of torsional surface wave in a pre-stressed heterogeneous layer sandwiched between a pre-stressed anisotropic porous semi-infinite medium and gravitating anisotropic porous half-space. The non-homogeneity within the intermediate layer and upper semi-infinite medium is assumed to rise up, because of quadratic variation and exponential variation in directional rigidity, pre-stress, and density respectively. The displacement dispersion equation for the torsional wave velocity has been expressed in the term of Whitaker function and their derivatives. Dispersion relation and the closed-form solutions have been obtained analytically for the displacement in the layer and the half-spaces. It is determined that the existing geometry allows torsional surface waves to propagate and the observe exhibits that the layer width, layer inhomogeneity, frequency of heterogeneity in the heterogeneous medium has a great impact on the propagation of the torsional surface wave. The influence of inhomogeneities on torsional wave velocity is also mentioned graphically by means plotting the dimensionless phase velocity against non-dimensional wave number for distinct values of inhomogeneity parameters.