On the velocities of localized vibration modes in immersed solid wedges

The approximate theory of localized elastic waves in immersed solid wedges earlier developed for wedges with small values of the apex angle @V. V. Krylov, Proc. IEEE Ultrason. Symp., Cat. #94, CHO 793–796 (1994)] has predicted that the effect of water loading results in velocity decrease for wedge modes travelling in the subsonic regime of wave propagation. The results of this theory, in particular the absolute values of wedge wave velocity calculated for slender Plexiglas wedges, agree well with the corresponding experiments. The present study demonstrates that for relative values of wedge wave velocity, as compared with those for wedges in vacuum, this theory provides good quantitative agreement with the experiments on Plexiglas samples also for large values of the apex angle. In addition to this, a generalization of the theory is undertaken to describe the effect of heavier wedge material and a supersonic regime of wave propagation. The corresponding results show good agreement with the existing velocity measurements in immersed brass wedges.