Abstract: | This paper presents transient deformation of an elastic half‐space under two types of line‐concentrated impulsive loads applied simultaneously. One load is a sustainable normal force, while the other is a momentarily applied vector shear force. For each of the two loads the author gave the respective solution in two separate papers. Here the two solutions are superimposed to determine the response of the half‐space under the combined loads. The present work is devoted to the salient wave propagation features seen in the resultant computer plots that disclose the strained half‐space. Since each critical deformation is explicitly indicated in the plots by a wave front, the interpretation of the response of the half‐space to the applied load is readily available at a glance. A comparison is then presented that identifies those deformation traits and wave fronts, among the nineteen here, that are more closely related to those found in previous works. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |