The theory of guided wave propagation in N-layered media is presented. The derivation of the dispersion equation is obtained from the application of appropriate boundary and continuity conditions to the solution of the general wave propagation. The resulting dispersion equation is given in the form of a determinant of a 4Nx4N coefficient matrix. A numerical procedure is proposed to represent and solve the implicit equation resulting. The validity and efficiency of the proposed numerical model is discussed. Dispersion curves characterizing the N-layered material are obtained and compared to published results. In order to illustrate the use of the model to different practical applications, such as coating problems of plasma spray on a turbine blade, aircraft multiple layers, ice detection, etc. a sensitivity analysis of the dispersion curves respect to depth imperfections is given
