Compact travelling waves in viscoelastic solids

Abstract

We introduce a model for nonlinear viscoelastic solids, for which travelling shear waves with compact support are possible. Using analytical and numerical methods, we investigate the general case of this model, and an exact, kink-type travelling-wave solution is obtained as a special case result. Additionally, we derive and examine a new Burgers' type evolution equation based on the introduced constitutive equations.