An Efficient Local Artificial Boundary Condition for Infinite Long Finite Element Euler–Bernoulli Beam

Abstract

To solve the wave propagation problems of the Euler–Bernoulli beam in an unbounded domain effectively and efficiently, a new local artificial boundary condition technology is proposed. It replaces the residual right-hand side of the truncated discrete equation with an equivalent linear algebraic system. First, the equivalent Schrodinger equation is discussed. Its artificial boundary condition is obtained by first rationalizing the Dirichlet-to-Neumann condition in the frequency domain with a Pade approximation and then inverse transforming each Pade term back into the time domain by introducing auxiliary degrees of freedom. Frequency shifting is employed such that it performs better near a prescribed frequency. Then, the artificial boundary condition of the finite element Euler–Bernoulli beam is obtained by simple algebraic manipulations on that of the corresponding Schrodinger equation. This method only makes local changes to the original truncated discrete dynamic system and thus is very efficient and easy to use. The accuracy of the proposed method can be improved by using more Pade terms and a proper shift frequency. The numerical example shows, with only a few additional degrees of freedom, the proposed artificial boundary condition effectively eliminates the spurious reflection. The idea of the proposed method can also be used in other dispersive wave systems.