One-dimensional Wave Propagation

When a uniform, homogeneous bar is loaded axially we can model the stress distribution throughout the beam by looking at a very small slice of the given bar (Figure 1). The stress increase along a length of the bar, dx, can be given by /x

Figure 1 Normal Stresses Acting on a Differential Element of a Bar Based on Newtons second law, we can write the equilibrium equation of the differential slice as follows: -
x u t

. (1)

Where u is the displacement in the x direction, t is time, and r is the mass density of the bar. Canceling terms we arrive at: .. (2) By assuming a linear relationship between stress and strain, an adequate assumption when analyzing wave propagation, we can use Youngs Modulus to help simplify the equation. Recall that: .. (3) where E is the Youngs Modulus. Strain () can be written as, (4) Substituting this into Equation 3 we obtain,

.. (5) Differentiating this equation with respect to x, we obtain: (6) Substituting this equation into equation 2 yields, .. (7) or .. (8) where .. (9) Let is the velocity of the longitudinal stress wave propagation. Equation 8 is the one dimensional wave equation. The conditions that the left and right hand ends are held at height zero are encoded in the boundary conditions ( ( ) ) ( ( ) )

As we have been told the position and speed of the string at time 0, there are given functions f(x) and g(x) such that the initial conditions ( ( are satisfied. ) ) ( ) ( ) ) ( ( ) )

Solution One-dimensional Wave Propagation by Separation of Variables

Equation (9) is the second order partial differential equation and can be solved using the method of separation of variables, wherein the solution to the partial differential equation can be written as ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )

This equation will be the solution to the wave equation if and only if ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )

The left hand side is independent of t. So the right hand which is equal to the left hand side, must be independent of t too. The right hand side is independent of x. So the left hand side must be independent of x too. So both sides must be independent of both x and t. So both sides must be constant. Lets call the constant . So we have equation (14) which is written below ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )

( )

We now have two constant coefficient ordinary differential equations, which we solve in the usual way. We try ( ) and ( ) for some constants r and s to be determined. These are solutions if and only if

If 6

0, we now have two independent solutions, namely

, for X(x) and two

independent solutions namely ( ) for arbitrary constants

, for T (t). If = 0, the general solution to 10

( ) . If 0, the equation 10 simplify to

( ) And the general solution is ( ) for arbitrary constants wave equation (9). Namely ( ( ) ) ( (

( ) ( ) . We have now found a huge number of solutions to the

for arbitrary

and arbitrary

)(

) for arbitrary

If ( ) ( ) any choice of constants

( ) ( )is also a solution for all solve the wave equation, then . This solution satisfies the boundary condition (10) if and only if

( ) ( )

This will certainly be the case if Xi(0) = 0 for all i. In fact, if the ais are nonzero and the Ti(t)s are independent, then (10) is satisfied if and only if all of the Xis(0)s are zero. For us, it will be good enough to simply restrict our attention to Xis for which Xi(0) = 0, so I am not even going ( ) ( )satisfies the boundary to define what independent means. Similarly ( ) condition (11) if and only if () ( )

And this will certainly be the case if ( ) . We are now going to go through the () solution that we find previously and discard all of those that fail to satisfy ( ) . First consider 0 so that ( ) . The condition ( ) is satisfied if and only if d1=0. ( ) is satisfied if and only if . So the condition ( ) ( )are both satisfied only if in which case ( ) is identically zero. There is nothing to be gained be keeping an identical zero ( )so we discard 0 completely. Next consider 0 so that . So we require

. The condition ( ) is satisfied if and only if . The condition ( ) is satisfied if and only if

If d1 were zero, then X(x) would again be identically zero and hence useless. So instead, we discard any that does not obey

. One that obeys If the last step, we multiplied both sides of 0. But we are now considering only 0. Fortunately, there are infinitely many complex

is

numbers that work. In fact

if and only if there is an integer k such that ,

with ( ) ( ) ( )(

( ) (

)( ) ( ) ( )

( Where complex no. We know that ( )

( )and ( ). Note that to this point are allowed to be any complex no so that and are allowed to be any

obeys the wave equation (10) and the boundary conditions (11) and (12), for any choice of the constants and It remains only to see if we can choose and to satisfy ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )

( )

) , has a unique

But any (reasonably smooth) function ( ), defined on the interval representation ( ) ( ( ) ( )

as a linear combination of

)s and we also know the formula ( ) ( ) ( ) and ( ) . This

for the coefficients. We can make (15) match (13') by choosing ( ) tells us that ( ) ( ) and ( ) ( ) ( )

. Similarly, we can match (15) match (14') by choosing . So that we have

. This tells us that

a solution ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )

With ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )