G. Maidanik J. Dickey
CDNSWC, Bethesda, MD 20084-500
In a complex structure in which the substructures are fairly periodic the phenomenon of localization (a la Anderson) and delocalization may arise when the periodicity is disturbed. In this paper, the localization and delocalization that may manifest in the response of a beaded (taut) string are discussed. It is argued that this phenomenon is related to the phenomenon of pass and stop bands that arise in a beaded string in which bays are fairly identical. A bay is the portion of a string between adjacent beads. When the identity of the bays is disturbed, localization and delocalization occur at frequencies that lie in pass and stop bands, respectively. The disturbance may be in the form of changing fractionally and randomly the spatial extents of the bays. Both localization and delocalization may play a significant role in the response behavior of periodic structures.