LAUSR

The dynamic behavior of a structure can be formulated in terms of the waves propagating through its members. This approach is commonly known as the Travelling Wave Method (TWM). The propagation of an external excitation within structural members, and the behavior of waves at a discontinuity are defined by the amplitude of displacement waves, and the wave reflection and transmission coefficients. The assemblage of these properties provides a concise method to formulate the dynamic response of structures. Although it has been used for the analysis of aerospace structures, the TWM has rarely been used for the analysis of civil engineering structures. This paper presents the theoretical basis and the formulation of the wave-propagation approach to analyze the dynamic response of civil-engineering-type structures, and discusses its advantages over the commonly used Finite Element Method (FEM). It is shown by examples that TWM requires less computational time than FEM, can incorporate the frequency-dependent soil–structure interaction effects in the analysis directly, and gives more accurate results at high frequencies. The last one is particularly important for detecting small and invisible damages in structures, since most of such damage is hidden in high frequencies.