Behaviour of the acceleration and shock waves in materials with internal state variables

The explicit expressions for the change in the amplitudes of one-dimensional acceleration and shock waves propagating through arbitrary homogeneous materials described by the strain and internal state variables/parameters/are derived. The existence of a critical amplitude β for the acceleration wave and a critical strain gradient λ for the shock wave is established. For an infinitesimal shock wave the general form of the solution of the governing differential equation is furnished. The differential equations for the amplitudes of these two kind of waves are applied to an elastic-viscoplastic material.