Transient Excitation of an Elastic Half Space by a Point Load Traveling on the Surface

Abstract

The propagation of transient waves in a homogeneous, isotropic, linearly elastic half space excited by a traveling normal point load is investigated. The load is suddenly applied and then it moves rectilinearly at a constant speed along the free surface. The displacements are derived for the interior of the half space and for all load speeds. Wave-front expansions are obtained from the exact solution, in addition to results pertaining to the steady-state displacement field. The limit case of zero load speed is considered, yielding new results for Lamb’s point load problem.