Nested Bloch waves in elastic structures with configurational forces

Small axial and flexural oscillations are analysed for a periodic and infinite structure, constrained by sliding sleeves and composed of elastic beams. A nested Bloch-Floquet technique is introduced to treat the nonlinear coupling between longitudinal and transverse displacements induced by the configurational forces generated at the sliding sleeve ends. The action of configurational forces is shown to play an important role from two perspectives. First, the band gap structure for purely longitudinal vibration is broken so that axial propagation may occur at frequencies that are forbidden in the absence of a transverse oscillation and, second, a flexural oscillation may induce axial resonance, a situation in which the longitudinal vibrations tend to become unbounded. The presented results disclose the possibility of exploiting configurational forces in the design of mechanical devices towards longitudinal actuation from flexural vibrations of small amplitude at given frequency. This article is part of the theme issue 'Modelling of dynamic phenomena and localization in structured media (part 1)'.