Approximate Solution of High-Frequency-Factor Vibrations of Rigid Bodies on Elastic Media

The mixed boundary-value problems of the vibrations of rigid bodies on elastic media are generally considered in the low-frequency-factor range. It is first established that, quite apart from a consideration of resonance, the usual assumption that this range predominates in practice is erroneous. The present work, therefore, is concerned with vibrations at frequency factors which are much greater than unity. Five cases have been considered: torsional vibration of a rigid circular body on a semi-infinite elastic medium and on an infinitely wide elastic stratum on a rigid bed; vertical vibration of a rigid circular body and of an infinitely long rectangular body on a semi-infinite elastic medium; rocking of a long rectangular body on a semi-infinite elastic medium. An estimate of both the unknown dynamic stress distribution under the rigid bodies and their amplitude responses has been obtained by finding an approximate solution to the exact governing dual integral equations. It is shown that at high-frequency factors, stress distributions are approximately constant for vertical vibrations and vary linearly from the center for rotational vibrations as in a Winkler model of theoretical soil statics contrary to increasing stresses with infinite edge stresses for low-frequency and static stress distributions of rigid bodies on elastic half space. We also obtain the important conclusion for amplitude response that it is predominantly governed by the inertia of the bodies because the contribution due to the dispersion of waves in the elastic medium is generally of a lower order of frequency factor than the inertia term except for an incompressible medium which has been analyzed separately and found to be of the same order leading to expressions for equivalent inertia of the vibrating medium. The theoretical results are used to derive the “tails” of resonance curves for both half space and stratum cases where experimental results are available. The agreement is fair and improves with increasing frequency factor.