Angular dependence of the Rayleigh wave velocity in polycrystalline metals with small anisotropy

Abstract
An analytical expression for the angular dependence of the Rayleigh wave velocity on polycrystalline metals with small anisotropy is obtained with the use of the variational method. For a Poisson ratio v = ¼ this corrects the result obtained by M. L. Smith & F. A. Dahlen ( J. Geophys Res . 78, 3321-3333 (1973)), by using the same method. Application is made to the Rayleigh wave velocity in hot rolled aluminium and steel sheets. The results are shown to agree with the exact results obtained earlier for propagation along the principal axes of weakly textured metals with orthorhombic symmetry, this being the symmetry of rolled sheet. The results can be applied to the non-destructive measurement of residual stress in metals.