Multiple Rayleigh waves guided by the planar surface of a continuously twisted structurally chiral material.

The Stroh formalism was adapted for Rayleigh-wave propagation guided by the planar traction-free surface of a continuously twisted structurally chiral material (CTSCM), which is an anisotropic solid that is periodically non-homogeneous in the direction normal to the planar surface. Numerical studies reveal that this surface can support either one or two Rayleigh waves at a fixed frequency, depending on the structural period and orientation of the CTSCM. In the case of two Rayleigh waves, each wave possesses a different wavenumber. The Rayleigh wave with the larger wavenumber is more localized to the surface and has a phase speed that changes less as the angular frequency varies in comparison with the Rayleigh wave with the smaller wavenumber.