Propagation of discontinuities of displacement derivatives in nonhomogeneous viscoelastic media (Q1058885)

The one-dimensional wave equation for a nonhomogeneous viscoelastic medium with variable coefficients is transformed to a first order nonhomogeneous differential equation for the discontinuities of displacement derivatives by the technique of singular surfaces. The solution for the particle displacement, which is valid even after the wavefront has passed is obtained in the form of Taylor series by prescribing the time dependent displacement boundary condition. An application of a particular exponential type of variation of creep function and density are given along with some numerical results.