Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 iii Paper 79 2 iii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Use local coordinates with the interface , solid below and fluid above, and choose the P-SV displacement potentials convention , . Let the reflected P and SV potential wave amplitudes be , while the transmitted P wave amplitude is . All four waves have the same tangential slownessThe incident and transmitted retarded times have negative , while elastic waves have positive . At the interface all waveform derivatives therefore have the same argument. displacement field continuity givesWith Lamé parameters and , the shear and normal stresses follow directly from differentiation:The fluid has no shear traction, so the coefficient of in must vanish:The coefficient of in the solid stress is ; in the fluid it is . ThusThese are the three required matching conditions; tangential displacement field need not be continuous at a solid–inviscid-fluid boundary.
Put and . From (2), . In (1), the coefficient of simplifies because . Hence . Substitute this into (3) to obtainTherefore the solid-fluid P-wave transmission coefficient isDivision by was only an elimination device; the final expression extends continuously to . The normal-incidence value is . This is a potential coefficient; longitudinal displacement field transmission additionally multiplies it by . The original PDF's bracket lies in the denominator and contains and . The converted TeX misplaces the bracket, substitutes for , and loses the final cosine.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 iii Paper 82 4 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
For downward-phase reversal, the P-SV displacement potentials instead produceEliminating the potentials as before givesThe Hermitian part is negative definite, and consequentlyfor a nonzero backward displacement field. The P potential must use vertical wavenumber and the S potential , as in the original PDF; the TeX incorrectly gives the shear wavenumber for both.
P-SV displacement potentials 2026-10-14
In a uniform isotropic material, these scalar P-SV displacement potentials separate longitudinal P waves from vertically polarized SV-waves in an plane. They satisfy and , with compressional and shear speeds . Reversing the sign convention for changes its polarization column but not the physical P-SV directional impedance matrix or the separate modal energy fluxes.