Stroh Formalism and Rayleigh Waves

The Stroh formalism is a powerful and elegant mathematical method developed for the analysis of the equations of anisotropic elasticity. The purpose of this exposition is to introduce the essence of this formalism and demonstrate its effectiveness in both static and dynamic elasticity. The exposition is divided into three chapters. Chapter 1 gives a succinct introduction to the Stroh formalism so that the reader can grasp the essentials as quickly as possible. In Chapter 2 several important topics in static elasticity, which include fundamental solutions, piezoelectricity, and inverse boundary value problems, are studied on the basis of the Stroh formalism. Chapter 3 is devoted to Rayleigh waves, which has long been a topic of the utmost importance in nondestructive evaluation, seismology, and materials science. Here existence, uniqueness, phase velocity, polarization, and perturbation of Rayleigh waves are discussed through the Stroh formalism. This work will appeal to students and researchers in applied mathematics, mechanics, and engineering science. Reprinted from the Journal of Elasticity, Vol. 89:1-3, 2007.