Cubic nonlinearity and surface shock waves in soft tissue-like materials

The cubic nonlinearity of shear wave propagation plays a significant role in brain injury biomechanics. However, soft materials, like the brain, also support the propagation of surface waves, which produce a combination of longitudinal and transverse deformation. The order of the nonlinearity of surface waves in soft materials is still unknown. Here, we directly observe nonlinear Scholte waves propagating in an interface formed by an incompressible gelatin tissue-mimicking phantom and a water layer using ultrasound imaging operated as fast as 16667 frames per second. A two-dimensional correlation-based tracking algorithm was utilized to extract movies of the movement produced by the surface wave. Our results show that the initially nearly monochromatic wave becomes progressively distorted with the propagation due to nonlinearity. The distortion of the wave and its frequency spectrum indicate a high content of odd harmonics when compared with even harmonics. Additionally, by fitting our experimental data to a minimalist one-dimensional model based on the wave speed variation as a function of the perturbation amplitude, we found a cubic nonlinear parameter 46 times larger than the quadratic nonlinear parameter. Overall, the wave distortion, the harmonic development, and the dependence of the wave speed with the amplitude prove that cubic nonlinearity is essential to modeling nonlinear Scholte wave propagation. •High framerate ultrasound imaging allows the observation of nonlinear surface waves.•16667 fps and 2D elastography estimated the movement produced by the wave.•The initially smooth wave is distorted by nonlinearity, generating harmonics.•Results indicate that cubic nonlinearity is essential to model surface wave physics.