Longitudinal waves in an elastic medium with a piecewise-linear dependence of the stress on the strain (Q1189935)

The longitudinal wave propagation in an elastic body, whose elasticity coefficient (the derivative of the stress with respect to the strain) undergoes a discontinuity, is considered. The assumed discontinuity is a piecewise-linear, namely, the reference velocity is \(c_ 1=\text{const}\) for \(x<0\) and \(c_ 2=\text{const}> c_ 1\) for \(x>0\). It is shown that there are five possible domains for the values of the front velocity \(W\), some of them corresponding to the so-called fast waves, the others to the so-called slow ones. The main result says that if the front velocity reaches the value of one of the velocities of the characteristics, then the reconstruction of the motion occurs. A special case is constituted by the conversion of the type of waves (fast into slow and conversely). The paper is of a real interest for those working in the area of elastic wave propagation in media with jumps in the physical parameters.