Variational approach to scattering of plane elastic waves by diffraction gratings

The scattering of a time-harmonic plane elastic wave by a two-dimensional periodic structure is studied. The grating profile is given by a Lipschitz curve on which the displacement vanishes. Using a variational formulation in a bounded periodic cell involving a nonlocal boundary operator, existence of solutions in quasiperiodic Sobolev spaces is investigated by establishing the Fredholmness of the operator generated by the corresponding sesquilinear form. Moreover, by a Rellich identity, uniqueness is proved under the assumption that the grating profile is given by a Lipschitz graph. The direct scattering problem for transmission gratings is also investigated. In this case, uniqueness is proved except for a discrete set of frequencies. Copyright (C) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.