Observation of bulk strain solitons in layered bars of different materials

It is shown that the behavior of a bulk strain soliton in layered waveguides, comprising layers of different materials, depends on the type of contact between layers. In delaminated waveguides, solitons propagate independently in each layer and possess significantly different velocities and amplitudes that depend on the parameters of layer materials, whereas a single resultant soliton propagates in a waveguide bonded with a glassy adhesive. These properties of nonlinear bulk strain waves can be used for nondestructive testing due to the negligibly small damping of bulk solitons.