Splitting Induced Generation of Soliton Trains in Layered Waveguides

We report first experimental registration of the splitting induced generation of a soliton train from a single incident strain soliton in twoand three-layered elastic waveguides. The origin is in the nonlinear response of the wave to an abrupt change of physical properties of the waveguide. We show a good agreement between our experimental results and theoretical estimates, based on a weakly nonlinear solution for the Doubly Dispersive (Boussinesq type) equation with piecewise constant coefficients for the waveguide made of a piecewise isotropic nonlinearly elastic material. PACS numbers: 43.25+y, 46.40.Cd, 62.30+d ∗ Electronic mail: [email protected]