A Rotation Rate Sensor Based Upon a Rayleigh Resonator

Rayleigh waves generated by line loads on the surface of an elastic half-space experience a change in both amplitude and wave number if the medium undergoes rotation. Use is to be made of this to form the basis of a rotation sensor. The relative changes are, however, extremely small. It is the purpose of this paper to show how, by use of the properties of Rayleigh waves, the changes induced by rotation may be amplified while the basic wave is not. This is achieved by use of a Rayleigh resonator with carefully chosen characteristics. The basic theory of such a resonator has been worked out in Clarke et al. (1989) and Clarke and Burdess (1991) and is here extended to account for rotational effects. It is shown that it should be possible to construct a practicably sized device, based upon this theory, to act as a robust rotation rate sensor.