Diverging elastic waves in thin tapered plates

We studied diverging elastic waves in thin, truncated, tapered plates loaded in the plane of the plates with sine-squared strain pulses. A one-dimensional plane stress model was developed to predict the strain pulses that propagate away from the loaded edges into the linearly increasing plate cross-sections. We conducted experiments with 6.35-mm-thick, 6061-T651 aluminum plates and measured strain-time responses at two locations away from the loaded edges along the plate centerlines. Strain measurements from plates with 6- and 12-degree half-apex angles were compared with predictions from the one-dimensional model.