The propagation and backscattering of soliton-like pulses in a chain of quartz beads and related problems. (I). Propagation

We confirm that for vanishingly small loading and large impact condition, i t may be possible to generate solitons in a chain of grains that are charac terized by Hertzian contacts. For uniform or progressive loading conditions throughout the chain, one generates soft-solitons which are weakly dispers ive in space and time. Under conditions of weak impact, one generates acous tic pulses through the chain. We describe the displacements, velocities and accelerations suffered by the individual grains when subjected to solitons , soft-solitons and acoustic pulses and describe the effects of restitution on the propagating pulse. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserv ed.