Numerical study on guided-wave reflection and transmission at water pipe joint using hybrid finite element method

This study investigates guided-wave reflection and transmission at a water pipe joint. The system comprises a linearly elastic pipe filled with water with a joint that is modeled as a discontinuity of the solid region. Wave reflection and transmission are solved using the finite element method (FEM) with radiation conditions for reflected and transmitted guided waves into infinite waveguides. For the radiation conditions, the reflected and transmitted waves are expressed by modal expansion using the semi-analytical finite-element (SAFE) dispersion analysis method. This study extends the hybrid SAFE-FEM to the coupled fluid–solid axisymmetric problem. Numerical results demonstrate that the hybrid SAFE-FEM provides sufficiently accurate solutions. The propagation modes, similar to the modes in a solid pipe, are strongly or perfectly reflected by the joint. However, the modes are transmitted through the joint with little scattering after they converge to the modes in a water bar. The crossing of dispersion curves with those for modes in a solid pipe causes mode conversion and induces scattering attenuation.