ON EXTENSIONAL OSCILLATIONS AND WAVES IN ELASTIC RODS

The authors study the dispersive nature of propagating extensional wav es in an infinitely long elastic rod within the framework of the linea r theory of a Cosserat rod with two directors. The authors also identi fy certain material constants in the theory in a manner that is differ ent from those used by others and consequently show that the resulting theory better captures the high-frequency dynamical behavior of three -dimensional rod-like bodies.