Investigation of Stress Wave Propagation Through Intersecting Bars

Abstract

A general formulation is presented for the analysis of stress wave propagation through the junction of rectangular bars. The analysis is applied to the case of two bars meeting at right angles and is used to theoretically predict the passage of longitudinal waves through the junction. An experimental investigation of the phenomenon, using dynamic photoelasticity is conducted with a high-speed multiple spark gap camera of the Cranz-Schardin type. Three different geometries are tested to represent the most common types of junctions encountered in practice. In each of the cases, experimentally obtained results are observed to be very consistent with the theoretical predictions.