An analytical-numerical method is presented for analysing characteristics of waves in a cylinder composed of functionally graded material (FGM). In this method, the FGM cylinder is divided into a number of annular elements with three-nodal-lines in the wall thickness. The elemental material properties are assumed to vary linearly in the thickness direction so as to better model the spatial variation of material properties of FGM. The Hamilton principle is used to develop the dispersion equations for the cylinder, and the frequency and the group velocity are established in terms of the Rayleigh quotient. The method is applied to analyse several FGM cylinders, and its effciency is demonstrated. Numerical results demonstrate that the ratio of radius to thickness has a stronger influence on the frequency spectra in the circumferential wave than on that in the axial wave, that negative group velocity presents at a range of smaller wave numbers and that the range varies as the wave normal and the ratio of radius to thickness of FGM cylinders.

A novel method is presented for investigating elastic waves in functionally graded material (FGM) plates excited by plane pressure waves. The FGM plate is first divided into quadratic layer elements (QLEs). A general solution for the equation of motion governing the QLE has been derived. The general solution is then used together with the boundary and continuity conditions to obtain the displacement and stress in the frequency domain for an arbitrary FGM plate. The response of the plate to an incident pressure wave is obtained using the Fourier transform techniques. Results obtained by the present method are compared with an existing method using homogeneous layer elements. Numerical examples are presented to investigate stress waves in FGM plates. The relationship between the surface displacement response and the material property of quadratic FGM plates has been analytically obtained for the material characterization. A computational inverse technique is also presented for characterizing material property of an arbitrary FGM plate from the surface displacement response data, using present QLE method as forward solver and genetic algorithm as the inverse operator. This technique is utilized to reconstruct the material property of an actual SiC-C FGM.