On the existence of flexural edge waves on thin orthotropic plates

This paper is concerned with an investigation into the existence of waves propagating along a free edge of an orthotropic plate, where the edge is inclined at arbitrary angle to a principal direction of the material. After deriving the governing equation and edge conditions, an edge wave ansatz is substituted into this system to reduce it to a set of algebraic equations for the edge wave wave number and wave vector. These are solved numerically for several typical composite materials although analytic expressions can be obtained in the case of special values of the material parameters and inclination angle. It is found that a unique edge wave solution, which generally exhibits oscillation as well as decay away from the free edge, exists in all cases, and its wave speed is independent of its direction of propagation along the plate.