Effect of Geometry on Flexural Wave Propagation in a Notched Bar

The propagation of flexural elastic waves in notched metal bars with a rectangular cross section with the depth of notches increasing by a power law has been studied by numerical modeling and experimental laser scanning vibrometry. Three types of notch arrangement have been considered: uniform and more frequent and sparse towards the end of a bar. Such structures exhibit the characteristics of an acoustic black hole. For all the studied samples, in the 10-100 kHz frequency range, an increase in amplitude and decrease in length of the flexural wave have been experimentally found as a wave approaches the end of a bar. It has been shown that there is a critical frequency, above which the modes exhibit a section with highly reduced amplitude of oscillations.