Determination of the Unloading Boundary in Longitudinal Elastic-Plastic Stress Wave Propagation

Abstract

For several types of excitation of one-dimensional elastic-plastic stress waves in a rod, unloading waves propagate which interact with the loading waves. The moving boundary at which this interaction occurs is the unloading boundary. A knowledge of the location of this boundary and the behavior exhibited on it is necessary for the solution of wave-propagation problems of this kind. A technique is presented to obtain an arbitrary number of terms in series expressions describing the response in semi-infinite rods. Several examples, including finite mass impact of the rod, are given to illustrate the use of the technique. The technique will determine the initial portion of the boundary in a finite length rod.