Waves in microstructured solids and the Boussinesq paradigm

The emergence of soliton trains and interaction of solitons are analyzed by using a Boussinesq-type equation which describes the propagation of bi-directional deformation waves in microstructured solids. The governing equation in the one-dimensional setting is based on the Mindlin model. This model includes scale parameters which show explicitly the influence of the microstructure in wave motion. As a result the governing equation has a hierarchical structure. The analysis is based on numerical simulation using the pseudospectral method. It is shown how the number of solitons in emerging trains depends on the initial excitation. The head-on collision of emerged solitons is not fully elastic due to radiation but the solitons preserve their identity after collision and the speed of solitons is retained while the radiation keeps a certain mean value. That is why we have kept through this paper the notion of solitons.

Research highlights► We model propagation of deformation waves in microstructured solids. ► The model equation is of Boussinesq-type. ► The model equation is integrated numerically using the pseudospectral method. ► It is shown that two trains of solitons emerge from localized initial pulse. ► Soliton character of the solution is demonstrated.