Numerical and experimental investigations on the vibration band-gap properties of periodic rigid frame structures

The spectral element method (SEM) is extended to study the vibration band-gap characteristics of periodic rigid frame structures composed of Timoshenko beams. The tensional and bending elements are taken into account for deducing the element stiffness matrices which are assembled to establish the spectral equations of motion of the whole rigid frame structure. The validity and accuracy of the natural frequencies and frequency responses obtained by the SEM are verified by comparing the present numerical results with the results of the experiments and the finite element method (FEM). The results indicate that the SEM is very suitable for analyzing the dynamic response and vibration band-gap properties of the periodic frame structures, and the SEM is more effective and accurate than the FEM, especially for the high frequency responses. The influences of the structural and material parameters on the vibration band-gaps are analyzed, and some new configurations of the periodic rigid frame structures are designed to obtain more and wider frequency band-gaps and consequently to improve the structural vibration isolation capability.