Abstract
Abstract The article is concerned with the analysis of the problem for a concentrated line load moving at a constant speed along the surface of a pre-stressed, incompressible, isotropic elastic half-space, within the framework of the plane-strain assumption. The focus is on the near-critical regimes, when the speed of the load is close to that of the surface wave. Both steady-state and transient regimes are considered. Implementation of the hyperbolic–elliptic asymptotic formulation for the surface wave field allows explicit approximate solution for displacement components expressed in terms of the elementary functions, highlighting the resonant nature of the surface wave. Numerical illustrations of the solutions are presented for several material models.