Elastic wave propagation in a periodic composite beam structure: A new model for band gaps incorporating surface energy, transverse shear and rotational inertia effects

A new model for determining band gaps for elastic wave propagation in a periodic composite beam structure is developed using a non-classical Timoshenko beam model that incorporates the surface energy, transverse shear and rotational inertia effects. The Bloch theorem and transfer matrix method for periodic structures are employed in the formulation. The new model reduces to the classical elasticity-based model when the surface energy effect is not considered. It is shown that the band gaps predicted by the current model depend on the surface elastic constants of each constituent material, beam thickness, unit cell size, and volume fraction. The numerical results reveal that the band gap based on the current non-classical model is always larger than that given by the classical model when the beam thickness is very small, but the difference is diminishing as the thickness becomes large. Also, it is found that the first frequency for producing the band gap and the band gap size decrease with the increase of the unit cell length according to both the current and classical models. In addition, it is observed that the volume fraction has a significant effect on the band gap size, and large band gaps can be obtained by tailoring the volume fraction and material parameters.