On Rayleigh waves in a thinly layered laminated thermoelastic medium with stress couples under initial stresses

A study is made of the propagation of Rayleigh waves in a thinly layered laminated thermoelastic medium under deviatoric, hydrostatic, and couple stresses. The frequency equation of the Rayleigh waves is obtained. The phase velocity of the Rayleigh waves depends on the initial stress, deviatoric stress, and the couple stress. The laminated medium is first replaced by an equivalent anisotropic thermoelastic continuum. The corresponding thermoelastic coefficients (after deformation) are derived in terms of initially isotropic thermoelastic coefficients (before deformation) of individual layers. Several particular cases are discussed for the determination of the displacement fields with or without the effect of the couple stress.