The formation and evolution of the plasma sheets resulting from the plasma compression in diversified three-dimensional (3D) magnetic configurations with singular X lines are reported on. The research was focused on the correlation between the structure of a plasma sheet and the topology of the initial 3D magnetic configuration, especially on the impact of the guide field aligned with the X line. It has been demonstrated experimentally that plasma compression and formation of extended plasma sheets can take place in configurations with the X lines in the presence of a strong guide field. The electron density distributions in the plasma sheets were found to be rather sensitive to the magnetic field topology. The experiments revealed the effect of progressive decrease of the plasma compression ratio in response to increasing guide field. This effect has two basic manifestations: a decrease of the maximum plasma density and an enlargement of the sheet thickness. Based on the experimental data we advanced a concept that the deterioration of plasma compression into the sheet is due to enhancement of the guide field inside the sheet over its initial value, and due to excitation of additional currents in the plane perpendicular to the singular X line and to the original current in the sheet.

We report the registration of delamination induced variations in the dynamics of bulk strain solitary waves in layered polymeric bars with the glassy and rubber-like adhesives, for the layers made of the same material. The key phenomenon in a layered structure with the glassy bonding is the delamination caused fission of a single incident soliton into a wave train of solitons, with the detectable increase in the amplitude of the leading solitary wave. The significant feature of bulk strain solitons in structures bonded with the rubber-like adhesive is the generation of radiating solitary waves, whilst co-propagating ripples disappear in the delaminated area. The observed variations may be used for the detection of delamination in lengthy layered structures.

We report first experimental registration of the splitting induced generation of a soliton train from a single incident strain soliton in two-and three-layered elastic waveguides. The origin is in the nonlinear response of the wave to an abrupt change of physical properties of the waveguide. We show a good agreement between our experimental results and theoretical estimates, based on a weakly nonlinear solution for the Doubly Dispersive (Boussinesq type) equation with piecewise constant coefficients for the waveguide made of a piecewise isotropic nonlinearly elastic material.

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