Wave propagation and dispersion in microstructured wool felt

On the basis of the experimental data of the piano hammers study the one-dimensional constitutive equation of the wool felt material is proposed. This relation enables deriving a nonlinear partial differential equation of motion with third order terms, which takes into account the elastic and hereditary properties of a microstructured felt. This equation of motion is used to study pulse evolution and propagation in the one-dimensional case. Thorough analysis both of the linear and nonlinear problems is presented. The physical dimensionless parameters are established and their importance in describing the dispersion effects is discussed. It is shown that both normal and anomalous dispersion types exist in wool felt material. The dispersion analysis shows also that for the certain ranges of physical parameters negative group velocity will appear. The initial value problem is considered and the analysis of the numerical solution describing the strain wave evolution is provided. The influence of the material parameters on the form of a propagating pulse is demonstrated and explained.