THE REFLECTION OF LONGITUDINAL WAVE PULSES FROM PLANE PARALLEL PLATES
A wave theory treatment is given of the reflection of elastic wave pulses from plane parallel plates. The analysis automatically resolves the reflected wave system into a series of undistorted individual pulses having the same shape as that impinging on the reflecting plate, but which are characterized by varying amplitudes and phase shifts corresponding to various internal reflection and refraction processes within the plate. The numerical values for the reflection coefficients for the three most prominent longitudinal reflected pulses resulting from an incident longitudinal wave pulse are given in both tabular and graphical form, for angles of incidence between 0 and 30°, for velocity ratios between the plate and incident medium of 1.0 to 2.0, and for density ratios of 0.9 to 1.3. The actual superposition of the individual reflected waves is shown graphically for three cases where the ratio of the reflecting plate thickness to the length of the incident pulse has the values 2, 1, or 1/2.