Mass-disorder effects on the frequency filtering in one-dimensional discrete particle systems

We numerically study the effects of mass-disorder on the signal transmission properties of one-dimensional linearly coupled granular systems. By driving such systems at a specified input frequency, we are able to investigate the disorder-induced high-frequency filtering of signals downstream from the excitation source. We consider ensembles of systems composed of random masses selected from normal, uniform, and binary distributions and find that the transmitted frequency content is not sensitive to the particular distribution or arrangement of the random masses. Rather, only knowledge of the moments of the mass distribution is necessary to quantify the bandwidth of transmitted frequencies.