Analysis of Elastic Pulse Dispersion in Periodically Layered Composite Rods using Wave Finite Element Method

Abstract

Numerical analysis of wave propagation in composite structures needs large-scale computation which is not feasible in practice. This paper investigates the possibility of applying a wave finite element method (WFEM) to composite structure. The key feature of the WFEM is its capability of accurately analyzing the discontinuities in stress wavefront along with the discontinuities in velocities and strains. In addition, the numerical analysis of the WFEM is unconditionally stable and reduces numerical computation. This paper studies a periodically layered composite rod to analyze the dispersion and propagation of stress waves using the WFEM. The numerical results are compared with other numerical/analytical solutions, paying attention to the accuracy of computing the strong discontinuities in the stress wavefront as well as the dispersion of pulses in a heterogeneous elastic rod. It is shown that the WFEM can be used as an affordable tool for numerically solving wave propagation in composite structures.