Stiffness matrix method with improved efficiency for elastic wave propagation in layered anisotropic media

This paper presents the recursive algorithm of stiffness matrix method with improved efficiency for computing the total and surface stiffness matrices for a general multilayered anisotropic media. Based on the eigensolutions commonly available for analysis of such media, the recursive algorithm deals with eigen-submatrices directly and bypasses all intermediate layer stiffness submatrices. The improved algorithm obviates the need to compute certain inverse of the original scheme and makes the stiffness matrix recursion more robust. In situation where transfer matrix is numerically stable and easily accessible, an improved recursive algorithm is also given directly in terms of transfer submatrices without involving their explicit inverse.