Solitary and shock waves in discrete strongly nonlinear double power-law materials

A laminar metamaterial supporting strongly nonlinear solitary and shock waves with impact energy mitigating capabilities is presented. It consists of steel plates with intermittent polymer toroidal rings acting as strongly nonlinear springs with large allowable strain. The force-displacement relationship of a compressed o-ring is described by the addition of two power-law relationships resulting in a solitary wave speed and width depending on the amplitude. This double nonlinearity allows splitting of an initial impulse into three separate strongly nonlinear solitary wave trains. Solitary and shock waves are observed experimentally and analyzed numerically in an assembly with Teflon o-rings. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.