We consider anti-plane motions of an elastic plate taking into account surface energy within the linear Gurtin-Murdoch surface elasticity. Two boundary-value problems are considered that describe complete shear dynamics of a plate with free faces or with free and clamped faces, respectively. These problems correspond to anti-plane dynamics of an elastic film perfectly or non-perfectly attached to a rigid substrate. Detailed analysis of dispersion relations is provided. In particular, the influence of the ratio of a plate thickness to characteristic length on the dispersion curves is analysed. This article is part of the theme issue 'Wave generation and transmission in multi-scale complex media and structured metamaterials (part 1)'.
Keywords: anti-plane waves; dispersion relations; surface elasticity.