Applied Mathematical Modelling 40 (2016) 2407–2420

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Applied Mathematical Modelling

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apm

Wave motion analysis and modeling of membrane structures

using the wavelet finite element method
Zhi-Bo Yang a,b, Xue-Feng Chen a,b,∗, Yong Xie c, Hao Zuo a,b, Hui-Hui Miao d,
Xing-Wu Zhang a,b
a
School of Mechanical Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, PR China
b
The State Key Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems Engineering, Xi’an 710049, PR China
c
School of Aerospace, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, PR China
d
Qingdao R&D Institute, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Qingdao 266000, PR China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this study, we present an application of the B-spline wavelet on the interval element
Received 23 September 2014 method to analyze the in-plane elastic wave motion in a two-dimensional membrane
Revised 30 June 2015
structure. In contrast to traditional polynomial interpolation in classical finite element
Accepted 22 September 2015
methods, the scaling function at a certain scale is used to form the shape functions and
Available online 14 October 2015
to construct wavelet-based elements. Other numerical wavelet methods add the wavelets
Keywords: directly, whereas the element displacement field represented by the coefficients of wavelets
B-spline wavelet on interval finite element expansions in the proposed method is transformed from wavelet space to physical space via
method the corresponding transformation matrix. Numerical experiments are presented to demon-
In-plane wave strate the effects of in-plane wave propagation in intact/notched membranes, particularly the
Wave motion propagations of the primary wave, secondary wave, and Rayleigh wave. In order to ensure a
comprehensive analysis of the problem, the responses of the membrane are simulated under
broad-band and narrow-band excitation.
© 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Wave motions in structures are important in seismic wave analysis and earthquake engineering. These structures can be as
simple as a cantilevered beam, or as complicated as airplane fuselages and wings constructed using a combination of membrane,
plate, shell, and frame members. However, all of these different structures can be viewed as a collection of waveguides. In the
simplified waveguides, i.e., rod, beam, arch, membrane, plate, and shell, wave energy is directed along the length or elementary
form of the waveguides. Furthermore, the collections and combinations of these waveguides can be viewed as a common network
analog [1]. Compared with the wave motion analysis based on three-dimensional numerical methods, the waveguide analysis
method has obvious advantages, as follows.

(a) Efficiency. The ‘rule of thumb’ and ‘pollution error’ referred to in the investigations by Zienkiewicz [2] and Babuska [3,4]
have very large computing requirements during accurate near-field wave motion modeling in three-dimensional numer-
ical methods. This issue necessitates the applications of parallel computing [5] and graphics processing unit (GPUs) [6].

∗
Corresponding author at: School of Mechanical Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, PR China. Tel.: +86 29 82667963; fax: +86 29 82663689.
E-mail addresses: yangbo-5-7@163.com, phdapple@mail.xjtu.edu.cn (Z.-B. Yang), chenxf@mail.xjtu.edu.cn (X.-F. Chen).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apm.2015.09.071
S0307-904X(15)00605-8/© 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
2408 Z.-B. Yang et al. / Applied Mathematical Modelling 40 (2016) 2407–2420

Fortunately, waveguide simplifications improve the calculation efficiency and facilitate wave motion calculation using
personal computers by reducing the dimensionality of problems.
(b) Accuracy in far field analysis. Based on some mechanical hypotheses, the waveguide method can provide an accurate pre-
sentation of higher modes, such as the higher symmetric and anti-symmetric modes in the Lamb wave [7,8]. In earthquake
engineering, the far field accuracy is more important than the near field accuracy for structural analysis.
The modes of wave motion in different waveguides can vary due to changes in the medium geometries or boundary con-
ditions. These factors make it more difficult to understand and interpret the physical characteristics of wave motion in a full
wavefield. Wave propagation in intact structures can be analyzed exactly using the Helmholtz equation, but analyzing the scat-
tering induced by discontinuities in membranes is relatively difficult to solve using the Helmholtz equation. Therefore, it is nec-
essary to investigate wave motion modeling for different waveguides, especially for the full wavefield [9,10]. In recent decades,
many numerical methods have been employed to solve this problem, including the finite element method (FEM) [3,4,11,12], fi-
nite difference method (FDM) [6,13–18], boundary element method (BEM) [19–21], spectral element method (SEM) [1,9,22–29],
and spectral finite element method (SFEM) [30–36]. In the solutions to wave propagation using these numerical methods, time-
domain integration schemes are employed widely in FEM, FDM, BEM, and SFEM, whereas frequency-domain solving schemes are
used widely in SEM. The drawback of the classical FEM, FDM, and SFEM approaches for solving the wave problem is that at least
10 grid points per wavelength are generally required to achieve a useful level of accuracy. This often results in computational
grids that are simply too large to be solved with normal computers. This problem is further confounded by the requirement for
small time steps to maintain the stability of time-domain integration. However, this problem has been alleviated by the devel-
opment of GPU-based calculation [6,37,38]. We also note the contribution of the local interaction simulation approach (LISA).
The LISA method, a modified FDM, has been used widely in wave propagation simulations combined with GPU [5,6,39]. The
dimension of the structures can be reduced by the Green integration in BEM, but the requirement for a fundamental solution
and the asymmetry of the matrix may limit the application of BEM in wave analysis. SEMs are often implemented using the
Fourier transform or wavelet transform. The dynamic stiffness of structures can be obtained by using the Fourier transform and
the solutions can be represented as spectral formulations [40–42]. The superior performance of FFT-based SEM is attractive, but
it still demands additional throw-off elements due to the periodic nature of the Fourier transform. The use of wavelets means
that the wavelet-based SEM does not require the throw-off element [9,22,43].
The wavelet finite element method is a new numerical method, which was developed in recent years. Xiang et al. proposed
using the B-spline wavelet on interval (BSWI) as an interpolation function for FEM and constructed various types of BSWI el-
ements for structural analysis [44–47]. Compared with other wavelets, the localization and spline properties of the BSWI are
attractive. Thus, BSWI is a good alternative choice for approximation in numerical calculation. In the present study, we apply a
time domain BSWI FEM for wave motion analysis in membranes.
According to the spline and wavelet characteristics mentioned above, we propose a time-domain BSWI method to investigate
in-plane wave motion analysis in membranes. The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. The energy functional of
membranes is obtained in Section 2. Next, the BSWI membrane element is formulated based on the energy functional. Section 3
presents the excitation signal definition. In Section 4, we provide some numerical examples. Finally, we discuss the disadvantages
of the BSWI in Section 5.
2. BSWI membrane element formulation

2.1. Energy functional of membrane structures

Membrane vibration can be treated as the in-plane vibration [28,29,48], which is represented by two displacement degrees
of freedom (DOF), u and v in the x-axis and y-axis, respectively. The membranes, plates and shells are all two-dimensional
waveguides, but their wave motion characteristics are entirely different. In this study, we focus mainly on wave propagation in
the membrane.
The strains relating to the membrane can be written as follows.
⎧ ∂u
⎪
⎪εxx =
⎪
⎪ ∂x
⎨ ∂v
εyy = (1)
⎪
⎪ ∂y
⎪
⎪ ∂ u ∂v
⎩εxy = + .
∂y ∂x
By defining the vectors ε = {εxx , εyy , εxy }T and d = {u, v}T , Eq. (1) is rewritten in a matrix form as follows.
⎡∂ ⎤
0
⎢ ∂x ⎥
⎢ ∂ ⎥
ε=⎢
⎢0
⎥d = Bd. (2)
⎣ ∂y ⎥
⎦
∂ ∂
∂y ∂x
 Z.-B. Yang et al. / Applied Mathematical Modelling 40 (2016) 2407–2420 2409

The elastic strain energy of the membrane is:

1
U= εT Dεd, (3)
2 
where

Eh
1 ν 0
D= ν 1 0 , (4)
(1 − ν)2 0 0 (1 − ν)/2
where  is the solution field, E is Young’s modulus, h is the thickness of the membrane, and ν is Poisson’s ratio. The membrane
in-plane kinetic energy T is formulated as:
 2  2   
1 ∂u ∂v 1 ∂ dT A ∂d
T = ρh + d = ρ h d , (5)
2  ∂t ∂t 2  ∂t A ∂t
where ρ is the mass density of the material and t is time. The total work provided by the external force is:

W =h dT fd+h dT pds+ dTi Fi , (6)
 s
i

where f = { fx , fy }T is the body forces vector, p = { px , py }T is the pressure vector on boundary s of field , Fi is the point force,
and di is the vector of the point displacement at the points where the point forces are applied.
Using Eqs. (3), (5) and (6), the total energy of the membrane is formulated as follows.
 = U − T − W. (7)
In general, the kinetic energy part is neglected during static analysis and the part of the work produced by the external forces
is neglected when free vibration analysis is needed. However, these parts play important roles in the wave motion analysis. The
stiffness matrix, mass matrix, and force vector can be obtained based on Hamilton’s principle.

2.2. Element shape functions

The B-spline in a knot sequence can be constructed easily by employing piecewise polynomials. The continuity of the B-spline
is Cm−2 when the piecewise polynomials order is assigned as m. Using the simple linear projection ξ = (x – a)/(b – a), any one-
dimensional B-spline function can be mapped onto the interval [0, 1]. Thus, we only need to construct the mth order B-spline
function on the interval [0, 1]. The BSWI is a type of wavelet that comprises many B-spline components. The basic BSWI, i.e., the
0 order BSWI on the interval [0,1], was proposed by Goswami, Chan, and Chui [49]. In order to ensure that there is at least one
inner wavelet or scaling function on the interval [0,1], the following relations should be satisfied:
2 j ≥ 2m − 1, (8)
where j is the scale number of BSWI. According to the 0 scale mth order B-spline functions and the corresponding wavelets given
by Goswami [49], as well as the j scale mth order BSWI, which is simply denoted as BSWImj , the scaling functions φm,k (ξ ) can
j

be derived by the following formulae

⎧
⎨φm,k (2 ξ ), k = −m + 1, . . . , −1
⎪ (0 boundary scaling functions )
l j−l

φm,k
j
(ξ ) = φm,2
l
j −m−k (1 − 2
j−l
ξ ), k = 2 j − m + 1, . . . , 2 j − 1 (1 boundary scaling functions ) (9)
⎪
⎩φ l (2 j−l ξ − 2−l k ), k = 0, . . . , 2 j − m
m,0 (inner scaling functions ).
Then, the scaling functions on the interval [0, 1] can be written in vector form as:
 j   j 
φx = φm,−m+1 (ξ )φm,−m+2
j
(ξ ) . . . φm,2
j
j −1 (ξ ) , φy = φm,−m+1 (η )φm,−m+2
j
(η ) . . . φm,2
j
j −1 (η ) , (10)

where ξ , η belongs to the interval [0, 1], which represents the normalized x and y coordinates, respectively. The tensor product is
a common approach for formulating two-dimensional shape functions from one-dimensional functions. For the BSWI, the two-
y y
dimensional scaling space Fj is produced by the one-dimensional space V jx and V j (Fj = V jx ⊗ V j ), and the two-dimensional shape
function is  = φx ⊗ φy . To provide a clear illustration of the BSWI shape function, some selected BSWI43 scaling functions are
presented in Fig. 1.

2.3. Finite element formulation via BSWI

The BSWI43 is a frequently-used wavelet function in wave motion analysis, which we employ to construct the wavelet element
in this study. The following equations of motion can be derived according to Hamilton’s principle.
δ  = δU − δ T − δW = 0. (11)
2410 Z.-B. Yang et al. / Applied Mathematical Modelling 40 (2016) 2407–2420

a b

c d

Fig. 1. (a–d) Some selected two-dimensional BSWI43 scaling functions.

Fig. 2. Illustration of the details of BSWI element.

By selecting the BSWI43 as the interpolating function for the x-axis and y-axis displacements u and v, respectively, we can
obtain:

u(ξ , η) = Tu
(12)
v(ξ , η) = Tv,
where T = {φx (ξ1 ),φx (ξ2 ) . . . φx (ξn+1 )}−T ⊗ {φy (η1 ),φy (η2 ) . . . φy (ηn+1 )}−T , which is the BSWI element transform matrix. The
T T T T T T

element displacement field represented by the coefficients of the wavelet expansions is transformed from wavelet space to
physical space via this transform matrix. Based on this process, the boundary conditions on the wavelet elements can be enforced
easily. Fig. 2 shows details of the BSWI membrane element. According to the inner node of the BSWI element shown in Fig. 2, the
element solving area is divided into (n + 1)×(n + 1) grids via the BSWI functions, where n = 2j + m – 2, j is the scaling parameter
and m is the order of the B-spline mentioned above.
After substituting Eqs. (3),(5),(6),(12) into Eq. (11), a typical wave propagation problem that neglects damping can be obtained
as an ordinary differential equation:
∂ 2d
M + Kd = ft + pt + Ft , (13)
∂t2
 Z.-B. Yang et al. / Applied Mathematical Modelling 40 (2016) 2407–2420 2411

a b

Fig. 3. Excitations used in the simulations: (a) low frequency impulse, and (b) high frequency impulse.

where M is the mass matrix, K is the stiffness matrix, and ft , pt , and Ft are the time-varying external forces defined in Eq. (6). To
simplify the formulations and matrix expression, the following integral notations are introduced before the matrix presentation:

0,0
1 0,0
1
x = lex TT  Tdξ , y = ley TT  Tdη
T T
(14)
0 0

0,1
1
Td  0,1
1
Td 
x = TT  Tdξ , y = TT  Tdη (15)
0 dξ 0 dη

d d
1 T 1 T
1,0 1,0
x = TT Tdξ , y = TT Tdη (16)
0 dξ 0 dη

d d d d
1 T 1 T
1,1 1 1,1 1
x = TT Tdξ , y = TT Tdη, (17)
lex 0 dξ dξ ley 0 dη dη
where lex and ley are the elemental lengths shown in Fig. 3. We can obtain the element stiffness matrix according to Eq. (11), as
follows.

K= BT DBd, (18)


1−μ 0,0 1−μ 0,1
E 1,1
x ⊗ y +
0,0
2 x ⊗ y
1,1
  μ1,0
x ⊗ y + 2 x ⊗ y
0,1 1,0
K= . (19)
1 − μ2 μx0,1 ⊗  1,0
y + 2
1−μ 1,0
x ⊗ y
0,1
  0,0 1−μ 1,1
x ⊗ y + 2  x ⊗ y
1,1 0,0

The element mass matrix is written as:

 
A
M = ρh (T)T Td. (20)
 A
The element external force vectors are written as:

Q(t ) = h (T)T ft d + h (T)T pt ds + (T)T Fti . (21)
 s
i

In the absence of the damping matrix, the motion equation can be described and solved in the time domain by applying the
central difference scheme. Assuming that:
∂ 2 dt dt+ t − 2dt + dt− t
the acceleration = (22)
∂t2 t2
∂ dt dt+ t − dt− t
the velocity = , (23)
∂t 2 t
then Eq. (13) can be rewritten as:
 M   2M   M 
dt+ = Ft − Kdt + dt − dt− t . (24)
t2
t
 t2 2
   
F
    t 
M0 M0 M2

Then, the acceleration and velocity of each time step can be calculated according to the displacement sequence and Eqs.
(22) and ( 23). This model requires a large memory for calculation. Thus, in order to avoid “OUT OF MEMORY,” the program is
organized in a pseudo-parallel form instead of the classical form [50], as follows.
2412 Z.-B. Yang et al. / Applied Mathematical Modelling 40 (2016) 2407–2420

#1 Loop over elements

For each element calculate the characteristic elemental matrices Ke and Me
Assemble each mass matrix
Store the elemental stiffness matrices
#1 End of loop over element e

Calculate the auxiliary vectors M0 , M2 , and (Mα 2

)−1 , where α denotes that this process is performed element by element
without summation
Apply the initial conditions at the time instant t = t0

#2 Loop over time instants t

Set up a pointer to the elemental stiffness matrix Ke at the beginning of the file
#21 Loop over elements e
Load the stiffness matrix Ke and move the pointer
p
Perform multiplication f̂ = Ke dI , where I denotes the vector with the numbers of DOFs corresponding to element e
Assemble vector F̂
#21 End of loop over elements e
Calculate the effective vector R̃ = Ft − F̂ + Mα dα − Mα
0 t
dα
2 t− t
The solution of the motion equation at the time instant t + t is obtained by multiplication element by element with
α
dt+ = M̃α R̃α
t
#2 End of loop over time instants t

3. Excitation signal definition

The low frequency impulse is usually employed to idealize the impact of other analogous impulses on structures [51,52]. Some
important aeronautical materials, such as titanium alloy and composite materials, have deficiencies in terms of their susceptibil-
ity to impact damage. Thus, impacts can severely decrease the strength of structures, so the presence of impacts and the relevant
wave motions should be monitored [53,54]. A typical impulse generated by a normal Hanning window is selected in this study:

1 − cos(c1 π t )
Fbroad (t )=Wr (t, τ ) , (25)
2
with
 1

Wr (t, τ )=He(t − τ ) − He t − τ − , (26)
c2
where Wr (t, τ ) is a rectangular window function, He(t) is the Heaviside function, and τ is a constant that adjusts the location of
the impulse load. The parameters c1 and c2 are frequency constants. If we let the selection of the bandwidth c1 = 40 kHz and the
cut-off frequency c2 = 20 kHz, then the frequency band of the impact can be restricted to 40 kHz, as shown in Fig. 3(a).
As a classical impulse for guided wave excitation, the high frequency impulse has been utilized most widely [55,56]. The
modulated single frequency tone-burst sinusoidal pulse presented in Fig. 3(b) is employed in the present study. The formulation
of this excitation is:
    
Npeak 2π f
Fnarrow (t ) = He(t − τ ) − He t − τ − 1 − cos t sin(2π f t ), (27)
f Npeak

where the center frequency f = 50 kHz and Npeak denotes the peak number of the impulse in the time domain.

4. Numerical examples

4.1. Geometry definitions and material properties

To demonstrate the process of wave motion using the elaborated wavelet finite element model, we present several numerical
examples in this section. Fig. 4 shows the geometry of the membrane considered in this investigation. The length and width of
the plate are both 1 m, and the thickness is 0.05 m. It is assumed that the membrane is made from aluminum. Young’s modulus
for aluminum in this study is 70 GPa, the mass density is 2730 kg/m3 , and Poisson’s ratio is 0.33. Using these material properties,
we can obtain the velocities of the primary wave (P wave), secondary wave (S wave), and Rayleigh wave (R wave) in aluminum:
CP = 5364.2 m/s, CS = 3104.8 m/s, and CR = 2893.7 m/s. The load is defined as biaxial (impacting along both the x-axis and
y-axis). Point A is selected as the exciting point and points B–E are the measurement points. In all of the numerical examples, the
membrane was meshed by 24 × 24 BSWI43 elements to avoid numerical dispersion.
 Z.-B. Yang et al. / Applied Mathematical Modelling 40 (2016) 2407–2420 2413

Fig. 4. Geometry of the numerical examples.

Table 1
Mesh information.

Term FEM BSWI

Grid (element × element) 240 × 240 480 × 480 24 × 24 32 × 32

DOFs 116162 462722 116162 206082

a b c

Fig. 5. Full field views of wave propagation excited by a biaxial low frequency impulse: (a) ABUQUS 240 × 240, (b) ABUQUS 480 × 480, and (c) BSWI 24 × 24.

The sampling frequency used in the numerical calculations was equal to 10 MHz in order to obtain a stable and accurate
solution. The wavelet finite element model for membrane wave propagation was implemented in the MATLAB environment
(32-bit version) on a personal computer with four 2.5 GHz Intel CPUs and one 4 GB memory.
Some notations are given as follows to simplify the illustrations.

(1) The basic modes are P: P wave, S: S wave, and R: Rayleigh wave.
(2) The converse modes are PS: the P wave generated from the reflection of the S wave, SP: the S wave generated from the
reflection of the P wave, PP: the P wave generated from the reflection of the S wave, and SS: the S wave generated from the
reflection of the S wave.
(3) The reflected wave is RR: the reflected R wave.

4.2. Validation with conventional FEM simulations and convergence analysis

We validated the proposed BSWI method based on conventional FEM simulations using the ABUQUS standard implicit direct
solver. The two methods employed the same parameters in the calculations to facilitate comparisons. The mesh grids in ABUQUS
were arranged as 240 × 240 and 480 × 480, where the DOFs were one and four times the number of the DOFs in the proposed
method, respectively, as shown in Table 1. The results calculated by ABUQUS were exported to MATLAB and plotted to obtain
better comparisons with the proposed method.
Figs. 5 and 6 compare the wave motions induced by the low frequency impulse. From the views of the snapshot or responses,
we can see that the proposed method clearly displays the propagation of the P, S, and R waves without numerical dispersion
when calculated using a 24 × 24 mesh grid (as shown in Table 1). The results agree well with those given by ABUQUS 480 × 480.
The snapshots obtained by ABUQUS 240 × 240, ABUQUS 480 × 480, and BSWI 24 × 24 (Fig. 5) have few differences. This can
2414 Z.-B. Yang et al. / Applied Mathematical Modelling 40 (2016) 2407–2420

a b

c d

Fig. 6. Comparison of the responses excited by the biaxial low frequency impulse: (a) view 1, (b) view 2, and (c, d) enlargements of the single peak in (a).

a b c

Fig. 7. Full field views of the wave propagation excited by the biaxial high frequency impulse: (a) ABUQUS 240 × 240, (b) ABUQUS 480 × 480, and (c) BSWI
24 × 24.

be interpreted based on the wavelength of low frequency impulse, i.e., the wavelength considered is long, which reduces the
requirements of the numerical simulations. However, there are some differences in the response signals shown in Fig. 6, which
verifies the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed method in the low frequency domain.
Figs. 7 and 8 show similar validations of the proposed method in the high frequency domain. The short wavelength has stricter
calculation requirements and we can see that the numerical dispersion in the snapshot of ABUQUS 240 × 240 is near the origin.
Theoretically, there should be no wave motion, but some weak vibrations can still be seen. This phenomenon disappeared in the
results obtained by ABUQUS 480 × 480 and BSWI 24 × 24. However, BSWI 24 × 24 employed one-quarter of the DOFs employed
in ABUQUS 480 × 480, thereby verifying the efficiency of the proposed method. The same conclusion can be obtained from the
comparison in the time domain shown in Fig. 8.
The convergence analyses of BSWI are presented in Figs. 9 and 10, where we used two types of mesh grids, i.e., 24 × 24 and
32 × 32 (as shown in Table 1). It should be mentioned that numerical dispersion may emerge if the mesh grid is reduced below
 Z.-B. Yang et al. / Applied Mathematical Modelling 40 (2016) 2407–2420 2415

a b

Fig. 8. Comparison of the responses excited by the biaxial high frequency impulse: (a) view 1, (b) view 2.

a b

c d

Fig. 9. Convergence analysis based on snapshots: (a, b) excited by the biaxial low frequency impulse with BSWI 24 × 24 and 32 × 32, (c, d) excited by the biaxial
high frequency impulse with BSWI 24 × 24 and 32 × 32.

24 × 24. Thus, we did not compare these meshes. Figs. 9 and 10 show comparisons of the snapshots and responses, respectively.
The responses in Fig. 10 were extracted from point B in the intact structure. We can see that no numerical dispersion emerged
after the wave front passed. Fig. 10(c) and (d) shows that there were very small differences between the results obtained using
the two types of mesh grids, thereby validating the convergence analysis using the proposed method.

4.3. Numerical calculations: intact membranes

The fundamental P, S, and R waves were simulated in the membrane according to the numerical procedure described in
Section 2. The biaxial impulse results for the intact membrane are presented in Figs. 11 and 12. We present three different wave
propagation snapshots (120 μs, 240 μs, and 360 μs) obtained in the time domain.
The biaxial results clearly illustrate the wave fronts for different wave modes (Fig. 11). However, it is still difficult to see the
separation of the S and R waves due to the characteristics of the excitation. Similar simulations were implemented with a high
frequency impulse on the same intact membrane and the results are presented in Fig. 12. Compared with the low frequency
2416 Z.-B. Yang et al. / Applied Mathematical Modelling 40 (2016) 2407–2420

a b

c d

Fig. 10. Convergence analysis based on the responses: (a) excited by the biaxial low frequency impulse, (b) excited by the biaxial high frequency impulse, and
(c, d) the differential signals for (a, b) respectively.

a b d

Fig. 11. Full field views of wave propagation excited by the low frequency impulse: (a–c) 120 μs, 240 μs, and 360 μs snapshots with the biaxial impulse.

a b c

Fig. 12. Full field views of wave propagation excited by the high frequency impulse: (a–c) 120 μs, 240 μs, and 360 μs snapshots with the biaxial impulse.
 Z.-B. Yang et al. / Applied Mathematical Modelling 40 (2016) 2407–2420 2417

a b c

d e f

Fig. 13. Snapshots obtained using notched membranes: (a–f) 120 μs, 240 μs, 312 μs, 360 μs, 432 μs, and 480 μs.

impulse response, the different waves in the high frequency impulse responses are clearly distinct. Thus, the separation of the R
waves and S waves can be observed in the snapshot at 240 μs. Many new reflected waves can be seen in the snapshot at 360 μs.
However, these features are difficult to identify in the snapshot obtained with the low frequency impulse. In order to illustrate
the reflected wave of the notch in membranes, only the high frequency impulse was employed in the following.

4.4. Numerical calculations: notched membranes

The simulation of scatterings induced by discontinuities in structures is important for seismic wave analysis and earthquake
engineering. In this section, we consider the wave propagation in a notched membrane analyzed using the BSWI method. The
notch starts at the point (0 m, 0.5 m) and ends at the point (0.03 m, 0.5 m).
Fig. 13 shows snapshots from 120 μs to 480 μs, and Fig. 14 presents the responses and the corresponding path illustrations
for points A–E. Compared with Fig. 12, the snapshots shown in Fig. 13 clearly demonstrate the reflection of the notch. The PP,
PS, SP, and RR waves reflected from the notch and the boundary of the membrane can be seen. However, it is difficult to identify
the wave modes, especially those reflected by these snapshots due to their complexity. Therefore, the responses for points A–E
are presented in Fig. 14 for clarity. To simplify the representation, the main wave paths related to points A–E are also given in
Fig. 14. Based on the velocities CP = 5364.2 m/s, CS = 3104.8 m/s, and CR = 2893.7 m/s and the given paths, we can easily verify
the accuracy of the proposed method. In Fig. 14(a), the P, S, and R waves travel 0.5 m to the notch, and the reflected modes PP1,
PS, SS, and RR travel 0.5 m to return to point A. In addition, the PP2∗ wave is generated by the reflection of the P wave from the
notch and the PP2 wave is generated by the reflection of the PP2∗ wave from the upper boundary of the membrane. Using the
velocities, we can obtain the arrival times for these waves. In Fig. 14(b), the highest difference for the second wave packet can be
interpreted as the reflections (PP1 and PS) from the notch. In Fig. 14(c), the difference between the two responses is very small,
which may be induced by the location of point C. Only the wave traveling in the P–PP path causes a slight difference after 300
μs. In Fig. 14(d), the PS wave is generated from the notch, and thus it does not appear in the response of the intact structure.
The difference at 350–400 μs is caused by the notch. Part of the energy is reflected from the notch, and thus the wave packet of
the notched structure is smaller than that of the intact structure. In Fig. 14(e), the wave packets at 320 μs and 420 μs are the
reflected PP and SP waves from the notch. It can be seen that the theoretical arrival times agree well with the simulated times
shown in Fig. 14, and no numerical dispersion can be observed, thereby verifying the accuracy of the proposed method.
2418 Z.-B. Yang et al. / Applied Mathematical Modelling 40 (2016) 2407–2420

Fig. 14. Responses and the corresponding path illustrations using notched membranes: (a) point A, (b) point B, (c) point C, (d) point D, and (e) point E. The black
line depicts the signal of the intact structure and the blue line depicts the signal of the notched structure.
 Z.-B. Yang et al. / Applied Mathematical Modelling 40 (2016) 2407–2420 2419

5. Discussion of the disadvantages

Various advantages of the proposed method were described above, but we also consider its disadvantages to provide a com-
prehensive evaluation. According to Eqs. (14)–( 17), we can see that the proposed method is limited to rectangular shapes. In fact,
there are at least two ways for analyzing complex structures using spline-based numerical method, as follows.

(1) Fictitious domain method: In this method, the complex physical domain is extended by the fictitious domain into an em-
bedding domain to allow easy meshing of complex geometries. The implementation of this method is relatively complex,
but more details can be found in [57].
(2) Jacobi matrix: Similar to the traditional FEM, the complex structures can be idealized by the isoparametric transformation.
In general, the shape functions are selected as the interpolation functions employed in the isoparametric transformation.
For the B-spline based method, the process is largely similar to isogeometric analysis [58,59]. Furthermore, the amount
of inner points for the present element is relatively large, and thus the implementation of the independent isoparametric
transformation will be inconvenient in some cases. In addition, the use of the BSWI element transform matrix shown in
Eq. (12) will also influence the efficiency of the isoparametric transformation.

6. Conclusions

In this study, we applied a B-spline wavelet on interval finite element to the analysis of elastic wave propagation in intact
membranes and notched membranes. We employed two types of impulses in numerical examples to verify the accuracy of the
proposed approach. The P wave, S wave, R wave, and other waves were all displayed clearly in the snapshots and responses.
The methodology and results presented in this study are helpful for understanding the complex behaviors of wave motions in
membrane structures.

Acknowledgments

The first author would like to express special and sincere thanks to his wife Yu-Xin Yang, who supported her husband and
performed unskilled work consistently during the hardest times that they suffered. This unskilled but sincere work is partly for
her.
This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51405369 and 51175401), the
China Scholarship Council, the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2014M560766), and the Fundamental Research Funds
for the Central Universities (No. xjj2014107).

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