Lamb Waves in Fluid-Loaded Plates

T. Kaufmann[1], F. Kassubek[1], D. Pape [1], M. Lenner[1]
[1]ABB Corporate Research, Baden-Dättwil, Switzerland
Veröffentlicht in 2013

Lamb waves are elastic waves propagating in free solid plates. In the case of plates loaded with a fluid, the equations describing these waves have to be modified to include the effects of the fluid. In our work we have tackled this problem using COMSOL Multiphysics®. We have used the two-dimensional plane strain model of the solid mechanics interface to calculate the eigenmodes of the coupled system plate-water in a periodic representation of the system. The solution derived with COMSOL Multiphysics® led to a deeper understanding of the fluid-plate-system and COMSOL’s flexibility did not only enable us to easily implement different fluid descriptions but will also allow to include a piezoelectric element to generate the forces closely modeled after the experiment.