A numerical study of wave dispersion curves in cylindrical rods with circular cross-section

Abstract

This work presents a finite element approach for modeling longitudinal wave propagation in thick cylindrical rods with circular cross-section. The formulation is based on simple time domain response of the structure to a properly chosen excitation, and is calculated with an explicit finite element solver. The proposed post-treatment procedure identifies the wavenumber for each mode of wave propagation at the desired frequency. The procedure is implemented and integrated in an efficient way in the explicit finite element code Europlexus. The numerical results are compared to the analytical ones obtained from the solution of the Pochhammer — Chree equation, which provides the dispersion curves for wavetrains in solid cylinders of infinite length.

Keywords

• Dispersion curves
• Pochhammer-Chree equation
• Wave propagation in rods
• Explicit finite element analysis
• Mode identification