Finite-amplitude shear wave in pre-stressed thin elastomers

We examine the elastic shear waves generated in a thin pre-stressed elastomer layer that is sandwiched between two relatively thick steel plates and is subjected to an elastic shear wave traveling in one of the steel plates. The elastomer layer has been deformed in uni-axial strain in advance, producing in the layer very large axial and lateral compressive stresses of the order of its bulk modulus. Deformations of this kind are produced in the thin layer when the sandwich structure is impacted by another steel plate at an oblique angle. Our results are thus relevant to the analysis of such pressure-shear plate impact experiments.