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The dispersion curves describe wave propagation in a structure, each branch representing a wave mode. As frequency varies the wavenumbers change and a number of dispersion phenomena may occur. This paper characterizes, analyzes, and quantifies these phenomena in general terms and illustrates them with examples. Two classes of phenomena occur. Weak coupling phenomena-veering and locking-arise when branches of the dispersion curves interact. These occur in the vicinity of the frequency at which, for undamped waveguides, the dispersion curves in the uncoupled waveguides would cross: if two dispersion curves (representing either propagating or evanescent waves) come close together as frequency increases then the curves either veer apart or lock together, forming a pair of attenuating oscillatory waves, which may later unlock into a pair of either propagating or evanescent waves. Which phenomenon occurs depends on the product of the gradients of the dispersion curves. The wave mode shapes which describe the deformation of the structure under the passage of a wave change rapidly around this critical frequency. These phenomena also occur in damped systems unless the levels of damping of the uncoupled waveguides are sufficiently different. Other phenomena can be attributed to strong coupling effects, where arbitrarily light stiffness or gyroscopic coupling changes the qualitative nature of the dispersion curves.

This paper describes a wave finite element method for the numerical prediction of wave characteristics of cylindrical and curved panels. The method combines conventional finite elements and the theory of wave propagation in periodic structures. The mass and stiffness matrices of a small segment of the structure, which is typically modeled using either a single shell element or, especially for laminated structures, a stack of solid elements meshed through the cross-section, are postprocessed using periodicity conditions. The matrices are typically found using a commercial FE package. The solutions of the resulting eigenproblem provide the frequency evolution of the wavenumber and the wave modes. For cylindrical geometries, the circumferential order of the wave can be specified in order to define the phase change that a wave experiences as it propagates across the element in the circumferential direction. The method is described and illustrated by application to cylinders and curved panels of different constructions. These include isotropic, orthotropic, and laminated sandwich constructions. The application of the method is seen to be straightforward even in the complicated case of laminated sandwich panels. Accurate predictions of the dispersion curves are found at negligible computational cost.

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Adding periodicity to structures leads to wavemode interaction, which generates pass- and stop-bands. The frequencies at which stop-bands occur are related to the periodic nature of the structure. Thus structural periodicity can be shaped in order to design vibro-acoustic filters for reducing vibration and noise transmission. The aim of this paper is to investigate, numerically and experimentally, stop-bands in periodic one-dimensional structures. Two methods for predicting stop-bands are described: the first method applies to infinite periodic structures using a wave approach; the second method deals with the evaluation of a vibration level difference (VLD) in a finite periodic structure embedded within an infinite one-dimensional waveguide. This VLD is defined to predict the performance in terms of noise and vibration insulation of periodic cells embedded in an otherwise uniform structure. Numerical examples are presented, and results are discussed and validated experimentally. Very good agreement between the numerical and experimental models in terms of stop-bands is shown. In particular, the results show that the stop-bands obtained using a wave approach (applied to a single cell of the structure) predict those obtained from the VLD of the corresponding finite periodic structure.