Transverse Vibration and Waves in a Membrane: Frequency Domain Spectral Element Modeling and Analysis

Abstract

Although the spectral element method (SEM) has been well recognized as an exact continuum element method, its application has been limited mostly to one-dimensional (1D) structures, or plates that can be transformed into 1D-like problems by assuming the displacements in one direction of the plate in terms of known functions. We propose a spectral element model for the transverse vibration of a finite membrane subjected to arbitrary boundary conditions. The proposed model is developed by using the boundary splitting method and the waveguide FEM-based spectral super element method in combination. The performance of the proposed spectral element model is numerically validated by comparison with exact solutions and solutions using the standard finite element method (FEM).