Application of Reciprocity Relations to
Laser-Based Ultrasonics
Jan D. Achenbach
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern University,
Evanston, IL 60208, USA
achenbach@northwestern.edu
Abstract. An application of the global reciprocity theorem for thermo-anisotropic
elastodynamics of inhomogeneous solids is discussed. The theorem relates body
forces, surface tractions, displacements, temperatures and strains of two solutions
of the field equations, states A and B, by integrals over a volume V and its bound-
ing surface S. The difference between various anisotropies enters via the stress
temperature tensor, which is different for different cases of anisotropy. The recip-
rocity theorem is used to analyze the dynamic response to high-intensity heating
of a small surface region of a half-space that is transversely isotropic and whose
elastic moduli and mass density depend on the depth coordinate.
1 Introduction
The reciprocity theorem for classical linearized elasticity has been known for
more than a century. As stated in the book by Kovalenko [1], a first statement of
the reciprocity theorem for isotropic thermoelasticity was presented by Maizel’
[2]. Despite its long existence, the theorem was not used extensively to actually
solve problems. A recent book by Achenbach [3] presents, however, novel uses of
reciprocity relations for the actual determination of elastodynamic fields.
As an example, we consider the surface-wave motion generated by line-focus
laser irradiation of a transversely isotropic half-space whose mechanical properties
depend on the depth component z.
Due to length limitations of this paper, we are not able to elaborate as much as
would be desirable, but details can be found in Refs. [4] and [5].
2 Thermo-anisotropic Elasticity
When a free cube of an anisotropic material is subjected to a uniform temperature
T, the thermal strains,
T
ks
ε
, may be written in the general form