Transmission Characteristics of Evanescent Lamb Waves through a Tunneling Region: a Chance for Backward Propagation

Evanescent waves are characterized by the exponential decay of the amplitude along the propagation direction, such that no phase velocity could be properly defined and the concept of propagation itself has to be properly redefined. However, evanescent waves can carry energy beyond a tunneling region where they are produced, and their effect in the forbidden region may be properly inferred by the outgoing wave. In the present paper, evidence of evanescent Lamb waves on a plate is given, as they are produced within a forbidden region where thickness is properly reduced and the acoustic modes are above threshold of propagation. However, the coupling of modes at each line boundary between different regions makes it difficult to single out the tunneling mode alone, since all modes share the same frequency. Therefore, we resort to the propagation of the backward S1 mode, that can be properly isolated from all the others. That makes the problem of refraction/reflection of backward propagating modes at a boundary, a problem by itself to be investigated and makes it worth to perform experiments on it. This is done in the present paper, as well, by detecting the acoustic field of a backward propagating Lamb mode reflected from the end boundary of a steel plate and the focusing effect from such a boundary is put in evidence in the case that a forward propagating mode is reflected as a backward propagating one.