Propagation and interaction of weakly nonlinear plane waves in transversely isotropic elastic materials

The paper presents a study of the propagation and interaction of weakly nonlinear plane waves in isotropic and transversely isotropic media. It begins with a definition of stored energy functions of considered hyperelastic models. The equation of elastodynamics as well as the first-order quasilinear hyperbolic system for plane waves are provided. The eigensystem for this system is determined to study three-wave interaction coefficients. The main part of the paper concerns a discussion of these coefficients. Applying the weakly nonlinear asymptotics method, it is shown that in the case of transverse isotropy the inviscid Burgers’ equation describes an evolution of a single quasi-shear wave. The result contradicts the case of isotropy, where the equation with quadratic nonlinearity cannot describe any shear wave propagation. The paper ends with an example of numerical solutions for the obtained evolution equation.