Dynamic homogenization of inhomogeneous elastic media based on energy equivalence

This paper presents a new method of dynamic homogenization of periodic elastic media under harmonic antiplane deformation based on energy equivalence. The dynamic homogenization is based on two main steps, (1) determining the dispersion relation and the detailed local response in a representative volume element (RVE) by analyzing the propagation of Bloch waves and (2) using energy equivalence between the periodic and effective media to determine the effective properties. The method is first applied to a one-dimensional periodic medium, from which the analytical solutions of the effective material properties are obtained. The results are compared with that from the original periodic medium and an excellent agreement is observed. The dynamic homogenization method is then applied to general two-dimensional periodic media to determine the effective properties and to predict wave fields under typical loading conditions. Illustrative examples are presented and compared with the results from the multiple scattering model. The method has also been applied to multiscale modeling of complicated inhomogeneous media containing multiple groups of periodic inhomogeneities. By treating each group as a homogeneous material with effective properties determined by the current homogenization method, the wave field is obtained using the boundary element method. The resulting wave fields from the current method show an excellent agreement with that from the multiple scattering model with matching local response details.