Abstract

In this paper, gravitational effects on propagation of surface waves in a homogeneous fibre-reinforced anisotropic general viscoelastic media of higher order with voids is investigated. The general surface wave speed is derived to study the effects of gravity on surface waves. Particular cases for Stoneley and Rayleigh waves are discussed. The results obtained in this investigation are more general in the sense that some earlier published results are obtained from our result as special cases. In the absence of voids our results for viscoelastic of order zero are well agreement to fibre-reinforced materials. Also by neglecting the reinforced elastic parameters, the results reduce to well known isotropic medium. Numerical results for particular materials are given and illustrated graphically. The results indicate that the effect of the gravitational, voids and the reinforced elastic parameters on surface waves are very pronounced.

Key words. Fibre-reinforced, viscoelastic, surface waves, gravity, anisotropic, voids.