Propagation and attenuation of stress waves in heterogeneous elastic rods

Abstract

In this paper, the propagation and attenuation of stress waves induced by an integrable external load in an elastic rod with multiple inclusions are investigated. The traveling wave method is suggested for obtaining the reflection coefficient, transmission coefficient, and attenuation coefficient of the wave propagating from one media to another. Furthermore, the effects of wavelength and the size of inclusion on elastic wave propagation are calculated by the finite element method. The results show that the theoretical solution is fitted well with the finite element numerical results. The attenuation coefficient is influenced by material parameters, wavelength, and the number of inclusions. The smaller wavelength or more inclusions will incur the more obvious attenuation phenomenon. Moreover, the reflection coefficient and transmission coefficient are affected by the acoustic impedance ratio of the matrix and the inclusion. The results of this paper can be served as the theoretical basis for the study of wave propagation in heterogeneous materials.