A Study on the Propagation of Plane Stress Waves across the Thickness of a Plate by the Method of Analytic Continuation in Time

Abstract

The interaction of plane tension/compression waves propagating within a plate perpendicularly to its surface is considered. The analytic solution is obtained by a modified method of characteristics for the one-dimensional wave equation used in problems on an impact of a rigid body on the surface of a plate. The displacements, velocities, and stresses in the plate are determined by the edge disturbance caused by the initial velocity and the stationary force field of masses of the striker and the plate. The method of analytic continuation in time put forward allows a stress analysis for an arbitrary time interval by using finite expressions. Contrary to a stress analysis in the frequency domain, which is commonly used in harmonic expansion of disturbances, the approach advanced allows one to analyze the solution in the case of discontinuous first derivatives of displacements without calculating jumps in summing series. A generalized closed-form solution is obtained for stresses in an arbitrary cycle n(t), which is determined by the multiplicity of the time of wave travel across the double thickness of the plate. A method of recurrent solution based on calculating the convolution of repeated integrals of the initial form of disturbance at t = 0 is elaborated. The procedure can be used for evaluating the maximum stress and the contact time in a plane impact on the surface of a plate.