Dispersive properties of elastic waves in a periodic composite with an array of fluid-filled holes are studied in this paper. A finite element method taking into account of the fluid-solid interaction is developed to calculate the dispersion curves. The finite element formulation is presented for one unit cell by taking advantage of the periodicity of the structures and the Bloch theorem. After dividing the equations in the real and imaginary parts, the numerical computation is performed by using the standard finite element code ABAQUS. As numerical examples, some typical twoand three-dimensional systems with circular or spherical holes filled with air, water or mercury are considered in detail. The method can yield precise results with fast convergence for all cases from very low-density fluids to very high-density fluids.applications such as acoustic filters, control of vibration isolation, noise suppression and design of new transducers, etc.Bandgaps can be characterized by the dispersion relations (i.e., band structures), that is, the frequency intervals where there is no dispersion curve are complete bandgaps. Therefore the calculation of the band structures or dispersion relations is one of the main tasks in studying phononic crystals. So far, several methods have been developed, among which, the transfer matrix (TM) method, 6 the plane wave expansion (PWE) method, 7−13 the finite difference time-domain (FDTD) method, 14−18 the multiple scattering theory (MST) method 19−24 and the wavelet method 25−27 are often used. Except the TM method, the other methods are applicable to one-, two-and three-dimensional (1D, 2D, and 3D) systems; and many of results based on these methods have been reported about the perfectly phononic crystals or those with defects. 28−31 However, most of them encounter difficulties when dealing with the systems with fluid-filled holes (fluid/solid systems). As well known, different wave modes propagate in solids and fluids, respectively -the mixed longitudinal and transverse elastic waves in solids and the purely longitudinal acoustic wave in fluids. Proper fluid-solid interface conditions, which are different from those between two solids or two fluids, should be considered to match the wave solutions in solids and fluids. The PWE method cannot yield correct results for fluid/solid systems. Unphysical flat bands appear randomly in the calculated band structures according to the number of plane waves used in calculation. The origin of the failure of the PWE method is that the Bloch theorem is singular in some areas of the systems. 32 To overcome this difficulty, Goffaux and Vigneron 8 introduced an artificial transverse wave velocity in the fluid. Although this assumption seems to work reasonably well, 8,10 the choice of the artificial transverse wave velocity in the fluid is not straightforward. Besides, this technique is only justified in a low-density fluid (e.g. air) and is not valid for the high-density fluid (e.g. water or mercury). The wavelet method 26,27 can eliminate these unph...