Branched flows of flexural waves in non-uniform elastic plates

Communications Physics

Jose K., Ferguson N. & Bhaskar A.

Waves travelling in spatially correlated random media undergo random focusing and display a phenomenon called branched flow, not unlike tsunami events and other physical phenomena. This is characterized by the emergence of flow-like patterns and locations of high response amplitude.  We reported the existence of branched flows in flexural elastic waves in moderately random thin plates. An elegant scaling of the location of high intensity peaks with correlation length and the severity of randomness, like those previously reported in other contexts, is observed analytically and numerically in elastic systems for the first time.

A Stylized View of Ray Simulations on a Random Elastic Plate Being Excited at the Bottom Edge