Spectral Analysis of Wave Motion

Spectral Analysis of Wave Motion

(Adapted from Chapter 1 of J. Doyle's Wave Propagation in Structures by Jos Roberto F. Arruda) August 1996

We will now discuss examples of application of the spectral analysis methods in wave propagation problems following the theory presented in Doyle's book using the MATLAB environment. Let's consider first the simple 1-D wave equation: 2u 2u = a2 2 (1) x 2 t where a is a a positive real constant. Using the spectral representation (Fourier series or integral) gives:
d 2u dx 2

+ 2a2u = 0

(2)

Now, either assuming a solution of the type u( x, ) = C( )e ikx or, equivalently, ~ considering another Fourier transformation in the spatial domain u( x, ) u ( k, ) , gives: k 2 + 2 a 2 = 0 k1,2 = a (3) Consequently, the solution for Eq. (1) may be expressed as: u( x, t ) = C1 ( )e iax + C2 ( )e iax e it

(4)

which may be rearranged as: u( x, t ) = C1 ( )e i ( ax t ) + C2 ( )e i ( ax + t )

(5)

The two terms in the above equation represent waves moving to the left and right, respectively, with phase speed: x 1 c= = = (6)
t a k

In this case the propagation is said to be non-dispersive as all frequency components travel at the same speed 1 a , so that the shape of the traveling wave remains the same. We can visualize the propagating wave by building a sinusoidal signal:
t=0:.00001:.0001; w=2*pi*20000; a=sqrt(7800/2.1e11); x=0:.01:1; M=zeros(length(x),length(t)); for i=1:length(t), M(:,i)=i*ones(size(x))'+sin(w*(a*x-t(i)*ones(size(x))))'; end plot(x,M,'k') xlabel('length x') ylabel('time t * 1e-4')

Spectral Analysis of Wave Motion

12

10

time4 * 1e-4 t

0 0 0.2 0.4 length x 0.6 0.8 1

The above figure illustrates how the first term in Eq. (5) corresponds to a sine wave propagating in the right direction. The figure below illustrated a wave propagating in the left direction:
t=0:.00001:.0001; w=2*pi*20000; a=sqrt(7800/2.1e11); x=0:.01:1; M=zeros(length(x),length(t)); for i=1:length(t), M(:,i)=i*ones(size(x))'+sin(w*(a*x+t(i)*ones(size(x))))'; end plot(x,M,'k') xlabel('length x') ylabel('time t * 1e-4')

Spectral Analysis of Wave Motion

12

10

time4 * 1e-4 t

0 0 0.2 0.4 length x 0.6 0.8 1

Now let's add two sinusoidal components to verify that a non-dispersive propagation preserves the shape of the wave. For this purpose we will increase the length of the signal:
t=0:.00001:.0001; w1=2*pi*20000; w2=2*pi*22000; a=sqrt(7800/2.1e11); x=0:.01:5; M=zeros(length(x),length(t)); for i=1:length(t), M(:,i)=i*ones(size(x))'+sin(w1*(a*x+t(i)*ones(size(x))))'+... sin(w2*(a*x+t(i)*ones(size(x))))'; end plot(x,M,'k') xlabel('length x') ylabel('time t * 1e-4')

Spectral Analysis of Wave Motion

14 12 10 8 6 4 time t * 1e-4 2 0 -2 0 1 2 length x 3 4 5

Now, to analyze a dispersive propagation, let's start with a partial differential equation which, as it will be shown later, corresponds to bending wave propagation in Bernoulli beams: 4u 2u + a4 2 = 0 (6) x 4 t where a is real and positive. Again using wave spectral analysis, and either assuming a solution of the type u( x, ) = C( )e ikx or, equivalently, considering another Fourier ~ transformation in the spatial domain u( x, ) u ( k, ) , gives: k 4 2 a 4 = 0 k 2 = a 2 (7) or k1 = + a ; k 2 = a ; k3 = +ia ; k 4 = ia (8) The general solution is therefore of the type:
u( x, t ) = C1 ( )e i( a x t ) + C2 ( )e + i ( a x +t ) + C3 ( )e ( a x +it ) + C4 ( )e ( a x + it )

...(9) where only the two first terms are propagating wave terms. The other two are called evanescent wave terms as they decay exponentially, and do not propagate. The phase speed can be obtained by observing the exponent of the propagating terms: x c= = = (10)
t k a

Spectral Analysis of Wave Motion

This is a dispersive relation as the speed depends on the frequency. Let us illustrate a dispersive propagation analogously to what we've done previously with the nondispersive case. We will only use the propagating part of the solution.
t=0:.001:.01; w1=2*pi*400; w2=2*pi*500; a=(7800*1e-4/(2.1e11*1e-8/12))^.25; x=0:.01:5; M=zeros(length(x),length(t)); for i=1:length(t), M(:,i)=i*ones(size(x))'+sin(a*sqrt(w1)*x+w1*t(i)*ones(size(x)))'+... sin(a*sqrt(w2)*x+w2*t(i)*ones(size(x)))'; end plot(x,M,'k') xlabel('length x') ylabel('time t * 1e-4')

14 12 10 8 6 4 time t * 1e-4 2 0 -2 0 1 2 length x 3 4 5

Observing the above plot one can see that the shape of the signal is not preserved. However, as the signal is the sum of two sine waves, it is always possible to see it as a product of a carrier sinusoidal frequency and a modulating sinusoidal frequency due to the trigonometric property: sin + (11) + sin = 2 sin cos
2 2 2

which can be written with = t : + 2 2 sin(1t ) + sin (2 t ) = 2 sin 1 t cos 1 t 2 2 The above relation can be applied to the propagating part of our wave solution, using only two neighboring frequencies: u( x, t ) = Pn e ikn x e i nt + Pn +1e ikn +1x e i n +1t (12)

Spectral Analysis of Wave Motion

Now making ( x, t ) = kx t and replacing:

n = n +1
yields
u( x, t ) = Pn e
i n

2 =+ 2
i

Pn = P

(13)
Pn +1 = P

+ Pn +1e

i n +1

= Pe

i i 2 + e 2 = 2 Pe i cos e 2

(14)

Now making d and using the definition of one has: d d = xdk td = dk x t = dk ( x c g t )

dk

(15)

and the solution may be written as:

dk u( x, t ) = 2 Pe ik ( x ct ) cos ( x c g t ) 2

(16)

The above equation shows clearly that the resulting wave may be seen as a sinusoid in x traveling at phase speed c = k multiplied by a modulating wave traveling with group speed c g = d . In the case of flexural waves in beams, the group speed is then given
dk

by:
cg = d 2 = = 2c dk a

(17)