Flexural wave motion in beam-type disordered periodic systems: Coincidence phenomenon and sound radiation

Abstract

This paper deals with flexural wave motion in uniform beam-type periodic systems whose repeating units are identical finite beams with multiple beam-length disorders. A general expression derived for the propagation constants has been employed to study its variation with frequency for a beam system having 4-span disordered repeating units. This is helpful in understanding flexural wave motion in disordered periodic beams. Free flexural waves have been studied as wave groups consisting of a large number of harmonic components of different wavelengths, phase velocities and directions. Phase velocities have been computed and plotted for different frequencies in the propagation zones in which the free waves progress without attenuation. This has been found to be useful in understanding and predicting the coincidence phenomenon in disordered periodic beams under convected pressure field loading. The excitation of wave groups in disordered periodic beam-type systems by a slow (subsonic) convecting pressure field can include fast (supersonic) moving flexural wave components which can radiate sound. It has been pointed out that sound radiation from a disordered periodic beam (or plate) can be quite different as compared to that from a periodic beam under similar convected pressure field loading.