Stationary shocks in periodic highly nonlinear granular chains.

Highly nonlinear solitary waves in heterogeneous periodic granular media

We use experiments, numerical simulations, and theoretical analysis to investigate the propagation of highly nonlinear solitary waves in periodic arrangements of dimer (two-mass) and trimer (threemass) cell structures in one-dimensional granular lattices. To vary the composition of the fundamental periodic units in the granular chains, we utilize beads of different materials (stainless steel, b...

Periodic Travelling Waves and Compactons in Granular Chains

We study the propagation of an unusual type of periodic travelling waves in chains of identical beads interacting via Hertz’s contact forces. Each bead periodically undergoes a compression phase followed by a free flight, due to special properties of Hertzian interactions (fully nonlinear under compression and vanishing in the absence of contact). We prove the existence of such waves close to b...

Highly nonlinear solitary waves in periodic dimer granular chains.

We investigate the propagation of highly nonlinear solitary waves in heterogeneous, periodic granular media using experiments, numerical simulations, and theoretical analysis. We examine periodic arrangements of particles in experiments in which stiffer and heavier beads (stainless steel) are alternated with softer and lighter ones (polytetrafluoroethylene beads). We find good agreement between...

Nonlinear waves in granular crystals

We investigate excitations in one-dimensional granular crystals, i.e. chains of solid beads with nonlinear interaction forces. These chains have attracted attention because of their relative experimental simplicity and interesting dynamics. They can be modelled as chains of coupled oscillators in a model reminiscent of the celebrated Fermi-Pasta-Ulam (FPU) equations. The nonlinearity of the int...

Periodic Traveling Waves in Diatomic Granular Chains