Localization and Solitary Waves in Solid Mechanics

Book excerpt: This book is a collection of recent reprints and new material on fundamentally nonlinear problems in structural systems which demonstrate localized responses to continuous inputs. It has two intended audiences. For mathematicians and physicists it should provide useful new insights into a classical yet rapidly developing area of application of the rich subject of dynamical systems theory. For workers in structural and solid mechanics it introduces a new methodology for dealing with structural localization and the related topic of the generation of solitary waves. Applications range from classical problems such as the buckling of cylindrical shells, twisted rods and pipelines, to the folding of geological strata, the failure of sandwich structures and the propagation of solitary waves in suspended beam systems.