Shock waves in curved beams (Q915525)

The paper investigates the propagation of shock waves in a theory of linearly elastic curved beams which allows for elongation of the neutral axis curve, flexure and cross-sectional shearing and stretching. The propagation conditions of such waves are determined. For a simple curved beam which is orthotropic and nonhomogeneous, the wave modes (in all there are nine wave speeds) uncouple and can be readily interpreted in terms of the deformation field. The various influences exhibited are as follows. The wave speeds depend on the curvature but not on the twist of the neutral axis curve. On examining the growth and decay properties of the shock waves it appears that the effect of the initial twist shows up in the decay-induction equations and is associated with the transverse section deformation. The twist acts to couple the shock wave mode vectors. The work heavily leans on previous works by H. Cohen, A. B. Whitman and C. N. DeSilva [e.g.: \textit{H. Cohen}, Arch. Mech. 30, 175-188 (1978; Zbl 0397.73014); \textit{A. B. Whitman} and \textit{H. Cohen}, Acta Mech. 34, 257-262 (1979; Zbl 0448.73034); \textit{C. N. De Silva} and \textit{A. B. Whitman}, J. Math. Phys. 12, 1603-1609 (1971; Zbl 0242.73004)].