Stroh Formalism and Rayleigh Waves

The exposition is divided into three chapters. Chapter 1 gives a succinct introduction to the Stroh formalism so that the reader can grasp the essentials as quickly as possible. In Chapter 2 several important topics in static elasticity, which include fundamental solutions, piezoelectricity, and inverse boundary value problems, are studied on the basis of the Stroh formalism. Chapter 3 is devoted to Rayleigh waves, which has long been a topic of the utmost importance in nondestructive evaluation, seismology, and materials science. Here existence, uniqueness, phase velocity, polarization, and perturbation of Rayleigh waves are discussed through the Stroh formalism.