Numerical Simulation on the Generation and Propagation of Wedge Waves

Abstract

There has been an increasing interest in wedge waves propagating along the tip of an ideal sharp elastic wedge because these waves are dispersionless, their propagation velocity is lower than the Rayleigh wave velocity and the acoustic energy is concentrated at the tip of the wedge. In this work, three dimensional finite element analysis method (FEM) has been applied to a sharp metal wedge to examine the generation and propagation of wedge waves. The material is aluminum and the wedge angle is thirty-degree. It has been shown in the numerical simulation that the velocity of the wedge wave estimated by the FEM almost agrees with the value determined from an empirical formula. It is also shown that two wedge waves in different modes are successfully reproduced in the simulation. Thus, it is demonstrated that the numerical simulation could be a useful tool to examine the generation and propagation of wedge waves.