• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.314-324
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• 2010

In waveguide structures, waves may be partially reflected by local non-uniformities. The effects of local non-uniformities has been previously investigated by means of a combined spectral element and finite element (SE/FE) method at relatively low frequencies. However, since the SE is formulated based on a beam theory, the SE/FE method is not appropriated for analysis at higher frequencies where complex deformation of the waveguide occurs. So it is necessary to extend this approach for high frequencies. For the wave propagation at higher frequencies, a combined spectral super element and finite element (SSE/FE) method is introduced in this paper. As an example of the application of this method, wave reflection and transmission due to a local defect in a rail are simulated at frequencies between 20kHz and 30kHz. Also numerical errors are evaluated by means of the conservation of the incident power.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.191-199
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• 2014

Wave reflection and transmission characteristics in waveguides are an important issue in many engineering applications. A combined spectral element and finite element (SE/FE) method is used to investigate the effects of local non-uniformities but limited at relatively low frequencies because the SE is formulated by using a beam theory. For higher frequency applications, a method named a combined spectral super element and finite element (SSE/FE) method was presented recently, replacing spectral elements with spectral super elements. This SSE/FE approach requires a long computing time due to the coupling of SSE and FE matrices. If a local non-uniformity has a uniform cross-section along its short length, the FE part could be further replaced by SSE, which improves performance of the combined SSE/FE method in terms of the modeling effort and computing time. In this paper SSEs are combined to investigate the characteristics of waves propagating along waveguides possessing geometric non-uniformities. Two models are regarded: a rail with a local defect and a periodically ribbed plate. In the case of the rail example, firstly, the results predicted by a combined SSE/FE method are compared with those from the combined SSEs in order to justify that the combined SSEs work properly. Then the SSEs are applied to a ribbed plate which has periodically repeated non-uniformities along its length. For the ribbed plate, the propagation characteristics are investigated in terms of the propagation constant.