Lamb waves propagation in nematic elastomer plates by the Legendre polynomial series approach

Abstract

The Lamb waves in nematic elastomer plates are investigated by adopting the viscoelasticity theory in the hydro-dynamic (low frequency) limit. The Legendre polynomial series approach is employed to obtain the complex wave number solutions to characterize the wave propagation and attenuation. Some unique Lamb wave characteristics are revealed. Results show that the cutoff frequencies of all Lamb modes vanish due to the high viscoelasticity. Except for A0 mode, each mode has a minimal attenuation frequency. Besides, the attenuation of nematic phase is thousands of times greater than the isotropic phase, which would be significant in designing damping applications.

Keywords:

• Nematic elastomers
• Lamb wave
• dispersion
• attenuation
• Legendre polynomial series approach

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this article.

Additional information

Funding

The work is supported by the Key discipline of Mechanical Engineering in Henan Polytechnic University.