Purely transverse waves in elastic anisotropic media

Formulas are obtained for decompositions of the third- and fourth-rank tensors symmetric in the last two and three indices, respectively, into irreducible parts invariant relative to the orthogonal group of coordinate transformation. The corresponding parts of the decompositions are orthogonal to each other. These decompositions are used to obtain a general representation of the displacement vectors of plane transverse waves in elastic isotropic and anisotropic solids. It is shown that the displacement vectors of transverse waves are second-, third-, and fourth-degree homogeneous polynomials of the wave normal. Special orthotropic materials are found that transmit purely transverse waves for any direction of the wave normal. The eigenmoduli, eigenstates, and engineering constants (bulk moduli, Young’s moduli, Poisson’s ratios, shear moduli, and Lamé constants of the closest isotropic materials) are determined for these materials.