Cavitation in Solid Medium

This paper demonstrates the existence of cavitation in a solid medium (such as soil) that occurs when a stress wave propagating in the medium is diffracted by an embedded structure. It is shown that very complex nonlinearities and discontinuities are elicited in the response of this system. These phenomena and their effect on the analysis and testing of structures subject to explosive or seismic excitation have not been treated until now in the literature (except in some finite element formulations), nor have they been considered in the design of such structures and the evaluation of tests, observations, and measurements. In this paper, the issue is explored using one‐dimensional linear plane wave approximations and lumped mass models. Relevant characteristics addressed are criteria for cavitation initiation, time of initiation, duration of cavitation response, repeated cavitation cycles, and bifurcation discontinuities in cavitation initiation and termination. An application example is given illustrating the effect of this phenomenon on a buried structure subject to an explosion.