ONE-DIMENSIONAL DEFORMATION WAVES IN NON-LINEAR VISCOELASTIC MEDIA

This paper is concerned with wave propagation processes in viscoelastic media. The constitutive equation is assumed to be dependent on the strain history, and physical and geometrical nonlinearities are taken into account. Using two equivalent forms of the constitutive equation, the corresponding transport equations are derived along the characteristics of a linear associated process. The high-frequency and low-frequency processes are investigated by making use of the asymptotic transport equations. The similarity of the results obtained by this method and by the singular surface theory is shown and the critical strain gradients derived by both methods are compared. The influence of inhomogeneity of the medium is discussed. © 1979.