On the Behavior of Acceleration Waves in Deformed Elastic Nonconductors

Abstract

In this paper, we consider one-dimensional acceleration waves propagating in an elastic nonconductor of heat which is at rest in a nonhomogeneous configuration. We show that there exists a number called the critical initial amplitude which either vanishes or is finite depending on the nature of the strain field just ahead of the waves and the material properties, and that under various physically reasonable circumstances the behavior of the waves can be quite different.