Experimental study on slow flexural waves around the defect modes in a phononic crystal beam using fiber Bragg gratings

Highlights: • Slow waves around the defect modes in a phononic crystal beam are validated. • A fiber Bragg grating displacement sensing system can measure the defect mode. • The defect mode is analyzed by a transfer matrix method with a supercell technique. - Abstract: This work experimentally studies influences of the point defect modes on the group velocity of flexural waves in a phononic crystal Timoshenko beam. Using the transfer matrix method with a supercell technique, the band structures and the group velocities around the defect modes are theoretically obtained. Particularly, to demonstrate the existence of the localized defect modes inside the band gaps, a high-sensitivity fiber Bragg grating sensing system is set up and the displacement transmittance is measured. Slow propagation of flexural waves via defect coupling in the phononic crystal beam is then experimentally demonstrated with Hanning windowed tone burst excitations.