An analytical solution for the shear horizontal wave propagation excited by interdigital transducer in a piezoelectric coupled semi-infinite medium is developed. This solution is an extension of earlier work on wave propagation in a piezoelectric coupled plate with finitely long interdigital transducer by fully taking account of piezoelectric effects in analysis. In the current analysis, the mathematical model for a semi-infinite metal substrate bonded by a layer of interdigital transducer with infinite length is first derived. The theoretical solutions are obtained in terms of elliptic integration of the first kind and of the standard integral representation for Legendre polynomial. The essential hypothesis for the derivation of the analysis is investigated. Based on the solution for infinitely long interdigital transducer, an analytical solution for the wave propagation in this semi-infinite piezoelectric medium excited by a finitely long interdigital transducer is obtained through Fourier transform. This theoretical research can be applied to health monitoring of structures by interdigital transducer. It could also be used as a framework for the design of interdigital transducer in wave excitation of smart structures.
Shear horizontal wave in a classical elastic half-space covered by a surface membrane treated by the couple stress theory
