Trailing Waves

TL;DR

This paper introduces trailing waves, a new type of non-dispersive elastic wave in plates at high frequency-thickness products, with analytical solutions explaining their formation and potential for nondestructive testing.

Contribution

The paper provides the first analytical solution for trailing waves, revealing their formation mechanism and potential applications in nondestructive testing.

Findings

Trailing waves are non-dispersive pulses with constant time delay.

Analytical solutions explain the formation of trailing and bulk waves.

Trailing waves have potential for nondestructive testing applications.

Abstract

We report a special phenomenon: trailing waves. They are generated by the propagation of elastic waves in plates at large frequency-thickness (fd) product. Unlike lamb waves and bulk waves, trailing waves are a list of non-dispersive pulses with constant time delay between each other. Based on Raleigh-Lamb equation, we give the analytical solution of trailing waves under a simple assumption. The analytical solution explains the formation of not only trailing waves but also bulk waves. It helps us better understand elastic waves in plates. We finally discuss the great potential of trailing waves for nondestructive testing.