Interaction of solitary pulses produced by high-rate loading with a free surface

Generation of nonlinear solitary waves in a system described by many-body interatomic interaction potentials is modeled for the first time. The behavior of a free surface of Ni and Al crystallites under high-rate loading is studied. Calculations show that solitary pulses produced by high-rate loading increase in amplitude by about a factor of 1.5 at the free surface of Ni and remain almost unchanged at the free surface of Al. The nature of this effect is associated with differences in the skeleton-skeleton interaction of Ni and Al.