A semi-analytical finite element formulation for modeling stress wave propagation in axisymmetric damped waveguides

A semi-analytical finite element (SAFE) method is presented for analyzing the wave propagation in viscoelastic axisymmetric waveguides. The approach extends a recent study presented by the authors, in which the general SAFE method was extended to account for material damping. The formulation presented in this paper uses the cylindrical coordinates to reduce the finite element discretization over the waveguide cross-section to a mono-dimensional mesh. The algorithm is validated by comparing the dispersion results with viscoelastic cases for which a Superposition of Partial Bulk Waves solution is known. The formulation accurately predicts dispersion properties and does not show any missing root. Applications to viscoelastic axisymmetric waveguides with varying mechanical and geometrical properties are presented. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.