Acoustic waves scattered by elastic waveguides using a spectral approach with a 2.5D coupled boundary-finite element method

Abstract

This work presents a two-and-a-half dimensional (2.5D) spectral formulation based on the finite element method (FEM) and the boundary element method (BEM) to study wave propagation in acoustic and elastic waveguides. The analysis involved superposing two dimensional (2D) problems with different longitudinal wavenumbers. A spectral finite element (SFEM) is proposed to represent waveguides in solids with arbitrary cross-section. Moreover, the BEM is extended to its spectral formulation (SBEM) to study unbounded fluid media and acoustic enclosures. Both approaches use Lagrange polynomials as element shape functions at the Legendre–Gauss–Lobatto (LGL) points. The fluid and solid subdomains are coupled by applying the appropriate boundary conditions at the limiting interface. The proposed method is verified by means of two benchmark problems: wave propagation in an unbounded acoustic medium and the scattering of waves by an elastic inclusion. The convergence and the computational effort are evaluated for different h−p strategies. Numerical results show good agreement with the reference solution. Finally, the proposed method is used to study the pressure field generated by an array of elastic fluid-filled scatterers immersed in an acoustic medium.