Nonlinear reflection of shock shear waves in soft elastic media.

For fluids, the theoretical investigation of shock wave reflection has a good agreement with experiments when the incident shock Mach number is large. But when it is small, theory predicts that Mach reflections are physically unrealistic, which contradicts experimental evidence. This von Neumann paradox is investigated for shear shock waves in soft elastic solids with theory and simulations. The nonlinear elastic wave equation is approximated by a paraxial wave equation with a cubic nonlinear term. This equation is solved numerically with finite differences and the Godunov scheme. Three reflection regimes are observed. Theory is developed for shock propagation by applying the Rankine-Hugoniot relations and entropic constraints. A characteristic parameter relating diffraction and non-linearity is introduced and its theoretical values are shown to match numerical observations. The numerical solution is then applied to von Neumann reflection, where curved reflected and Mach shocks are observed. Finally, the case of weak von Neumann reflection, where there is no reflected shock, is examined. The smooth but non-monotonic transition between these three reflection regimes, from linear Snell-Descartes to perfect grazing case, provides a solution to the acoustical von Neumann paradox for the shear wave equation. This transition is similar to the quadratic non-linearity in fluids.