Homogenization and Bridging Multi-scale Methods for the Dynamic Analysis of Periodic Solids

• Main Author: Gonella, Stefano
• Published: Georgia Institute of Technology 2007
• Subjects: Wave propagation; Damage detection; Multi-scale methods; Homogenization; Cellular materials; Periodic structures
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1853/16144

This work investigates the application of homogenization techniques to the dynamic analysis of periodic solids, with emphasis on lattice structures. The presented analysis is conducted both through a Fourier-based technique and through an alternative approach involving Taylor series expansions directly performed in the spatial domain in conjunction with a finite element formulation of the lattice unit cell. The challenge of increasing the accuracy and the range of applicability of the existing homogenization methods is addressed with various techniques. Among them, a multi-cell homogenization is introduced to extend the region of good approximation of the methods to include the short wavelength limit. The continuous partial differential equations resulting from the homogenization process are also used to estimate equivalent mechanical properties of lattices with various internal configurations. In particular, a detailed investigation is conducted on the in-plane behavior of hexagonal and re-entrant honeycombs, for which both static properties and wave propagation characteristics are retrieved by applying the proposed techniques. The analysis of wave propagation in homogenized media is furthermore investigated by means of the bridging scales method to address the problem of modelling travelling waves in homogenized media with localized discontinuities. This multi-scale approach reduces the computational cost associated with a detailed finite element analysis conducted over the entire domain and yields considerable savings in CPU time. The combined use of homogenization and bridging method is suggested as a powerful tool for fast and accurate wave simulation and its potentials for NDE applications are discussed.