A local time-domain transmitting boundary for simulating cylindrical elastic wave propagation in infinite media

Finite element simulation of the time-dependent wave propagation in infinite media requires enforcing the transmitting boundary to replace the truncated far-field infinite domain so as to model the effect of the wave radiation towards infinity. This paper proposed a novel local time-domain transmitting boundary for simulating the cylindrical elastic wave radiation problem. This boundary is a mechanical model consisting of the spring, dashpot and mass elements, with the auxiliary degrees of freedom introduced, which is dynamically stable and easily implemented into the commercial finite element codes. Numerical analysis of the cylindrical elastic wave radiation problem indicates that the proposed transmitting boundaries with the order N=3 for cylindrical P and SV waves and with the order N=4 for cylindrical SH wave have very high accuracy, even when the artificial boundary at wave source. The proposed transmitting boundary with order N=0 can be applied approximately to the general two-dimensional infinite elastic wave problems that contain the more complex outgoing wave fields at artificial boundary than the cylindrical waves. The plane-strain Lamb problem is analyzed with the acceptable engineering accuracy achieved. On the other hand, the proposed transmitting boundary with higher order can be a tool to localize the temporal convolution that appears in an exact time-domain transmitting boundary for the general infinite wave problems. This potential applicability is mentioned. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.