Solitary wave train formation in Hertzian chains

Experiments show that perturbation by an incident striker can generate solitary wave trains in unloaded, monodispersed elastic sphere alignments (Lazaridi A. N. and Nesterenko V. F., Prikl. Mekh. Tekh. Fiz., 3 (1985) 115). We report the first dynamical studies in the elastic regime that confirm and extend upon the results obtained in existing experiments and define the conditions for which controlled generation of solitary wave trains may be possible.