New Solitary Waves in Elastic Materials: Existence and Nonlinear Interaction

Abstract

Waves mentioned in the title were revealed in composite materials that are described by the microstructural theory of the second order — the theory of two-phase mixtures. For harmonic periodic waves, a mixture is always a dispersive medium. This medium admits existence of other waves — waves with profiles described by functions of mathematical physics (the Chebyshov–Hermite, Whittaker, Mathieu, and Lame functions). If the initial profile of a plane wave is chosen in the form of the Chebyshev–Hermite or Whittaker function, then the wave may be regarded as an aperiodic solitary wave. The dispersivity of a mixture as a nonlinear frequency dependence of phase velocities transforms for nonperiodic solitary waves into a nonlinear phase-dependence of wave velocities. This and some other properties of such waves permit us to state that these waves fall into a new class of waves in materials, which is intermediate between the classical simple waves and the classical dispersion traveling waves. The existence of these new waves is proved in a computer analysis of phase-velocity-versus-phase plots. One of the main results of the interaction study is proof of the existence of this interaction itself. Some features of the wave interaction — triplets and the concept of synchronization — are commented on