Rayleigh–Ritz calculation of the resonant modes of a solid parallelepiped in a pressurizing fluid

Resonant ultrasound spectroscopy relies on comparisons of experimentally determined vibrational spectra to theoretically computed spectra for the extraction of the elastic moduli of the solid samples. To determine the pressure dependence of these moduli, resonant spectra are taken for samples pressurized by a surrounding gas and knowledge of the contribution of the surface loading of the sample by the gas is needed in order to extract the intrinsic pressure dependence of the moduli. To facilitate the required comparisons, a Rayleigh-Ritz variational calculation of the vibrational spectrum is formulated which includes the loading of the solid by the pressurizing fluid. This formalism is used to compute the effect of gas loading on the vibrational spectrum of an isotropic, solid parallelepiped.