  The numerical analysis of elastic wave propagation in unbounded media may be
difficult to handle due to spurious waves reflected at the model artificial
boundaries. Several sophisticated techniques such as nonreflecting boundary
conditions, infinite elements or absorbing layers (e.g. Perfectly Matched
Layers) lead to an important reduction of such spurious reflections. In this
Note, a simple and efficient absorbing layer method is proposed in the
framework of the Finite Element Method. This method considers Rayleigh/Caughey
damping in the absorbing layer and its principle is presented first. The
efficiency of the method is then shown through 1D Finite Element simulations
considering homogeneous and heterogeneous damping in the absorbing layer. 2D
models are considered afterwards to assess the efficiency of the absorbing
layer method for various wave types (surface waves, body waves) and incidences
(normal to grazing). The method is shown to be efficient for different types of
elastic waves and may thus be used for various elastodynamic problems in
unbounded domains.
