The scaled boundary finite element method for dispersive wave propagation in higher‐order continua

The classical theory of elasticity relies on the perfect structure of matter. No matter how small a medium is, it always stays homogeneous—but the reality is different. Even though the classical continuum mechanics suffices well for describing phenomena that evolve at super‐microscopic scales, it ceases to reproduce reasonable responses when the size effects are pronounced. It is due to the local constitutive equations of classical continuum mechanics, which are devoid of any length scales associated with the underlying microstructure. The gradient‐dependent theory of elasticity redresses this shortcoming by incorporating the kinematic quantities of the corresponding representative volume element by enriching the differential equations with higher‐order spatial and temporal derivatives. In this study, the scaled boundary finite element method is formulated for the equations of motion with higher‐order inertia terms. To this end, the semi‐discretized scaled boundary finite element equations of the medium are derived by introducing the scaled boundary transformation of geometry to the gradient‐enriched equations of motion and applying the Galerkin method of weighted residuals. It is shown that the well‐established available solution methods are incapable of handling the frequency‐domain representation of the derived formulation. Accordingly, a numerical solution method based on the shooting technique is proposed. The solution procedure is formulated for general numerical integration schemes via the infinite Taylor series. The evolution of the impedance‐diffusion matrix and contribution of inter‐subdomain forces and tractions are extracted. Four different numerical integration methods are employed to describe the solution procedure. In addition, a comparison regarding their computational efficiency is presented. For the sake of verification, the scaled boundary finite element solutions of three numerical examples are compared with reference solutions that are obtained using finite element models with extremely fine meshes. The convergence trends are also presented for both h$$ h $$‐ and p$$ p $$‐refinement methods. The results demonstrate the capability of the proposed formulation in reproducing accurate responses.