Equipartition of energy in a helix

It is well known that the kinetic and potential energies of a system governed by a linear wave equation are equipartitioned in a finite time. This result has been extended by previous researchers to several physical settings: elastodynamics, electrodynamics, and micropolar elasticity. In the case of a helix, there is a direct coupling of longitudinal and torsional wave motions due to the structure of constitutive relations. Providing that the initial conditions functions have compact support, we demonstrate that the equipartition phenomenon occurs after a finite time in this case as well—i.e. the potential energy and the kinetic energy of a helix become equal and remain constant after a finite time.