Nonlinear traveling waves in a compressible Mooney-Rivlin rod I. Long finite-amplitude waves

In literature, nonlinear traveling waves in elastic circular rods have only been studied based on single partial differential equation (pde) models, and here we consider such a problem by using a more accurate coupled-pde model. We derive the Hamiltonian from the model equations for the long finite-amplitude wave approximation, analyze how the number of singular points of the system changes with the parameters, and study the features of these singular points qualitatively. Various physically acceptable nonlinear traveling waves are also discussed, and corresponding examples are given. In particular, we find that certain waves, which cannot be counted by the single-equation model, can arise. The project supported by the Research Grants Council of the HKSAR, China (City U 1107/99P) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (10372054 and 10171061)