Dr Karima Khusnutdinova (Loughborough University) gives a research webinar hosted by the School of Mathematics, UEA. The talk is on “Undular bores generated by fracture”. The abstract is below.

Watch the recording of the talk here.

Undular bores, or dispersive shock waves, are non-stationary waves propagating as oscillatory transitions between two basic states, in which the oscillatory structure gradually expands and grows in amplitude with distance travelled. We demonstrate for the first time, using high-speed pointwise photoelasticity, the generation of undular bores in solid (polymethylmethacrylate) pre-strained bars by dynamic fracture. Both the nonlinear Gardner equation and its linearised version are used to model the wave propagation, and are shown to provide good agreement with the key observed experimental features for suitable choice of elastic parameters. The experimental and theoretical approaches presented open new avenues and analytical tools for the study and application of dispersive shock waves in solids.

This is joint work with C.G. Hooper, P.D. Ruiz and J.M. Huntley.