EFFECTS OF PARTICLE RESONANCE ON DISPERSION OF ELASTIC WAVES IN PARTICULATE COMPOSITES

Elastic wave propagation in discrete random medium is studied to evaluate the effects of particle resonance on dispersion and attenuation of composite materials containing spherical inclusions. The frequency-dependent wave speed and attenuation coefficient can be obtained from proposed self-consistent method. It can be observed that the abrupt increase of effective wave speed and the concurrent peak of attenuation at low frequency is due to the lowest resonance of particles, whereas those in high frequency region are due to higher ones. The lowest resonance is mainly caused by the density mismatch and higher resonances by the stiffness mismatch between matrix and particles. The dispersion and attenuation of elastic waves in particulate composites are affected by the lowest resonance much than by higher ones.