Study of elastic wave propagation throught periodic media

Abstract

The project, in the field of solid mechanics, has as major objective the study of elastic waves propagation through a medium with periodic inclusions. Previous studies have shown that a good choice of material properties combined with a periodic arrangement of the structure gives rise to band gaps, i.e., intervals of frequency where waves do not propagate. As a result, these structures can be used as noise barriers and vibration isolators in a specific frequency interval. Due to several possible applications of these structures in noise and vibration control engineering, and also to the possibility of applying recently developed spectral modeling methods that have lower computational cost, such as obtaining spectral elements from finite element models of waveguide slices (WFEM),the subject becomes even more interesting.This will be developed in the Vibroacoustics Laboratory (LVA) of FEM/UNICAMP and it will be carried out in cooperation with the Department of Applied Physics of the Polytechnic University of Valencia - Campus of Gandia, in Spain. While the Department of Applied Physics in Gandia has extensive research experience on the propagation of ultrasonic waves in incompressible fluids containing periodic inclusions, LVA developed the spectral element method to model waveguides. This project intends to bring together the research experiences from these two research groups in order to enable a better understanding of the subject and allow the application of sonic (or phononic) crystals in the audio frequency range, especially in solid media. (AU)