Well-posed homogenized strain-gradient models for linear elastodynamics and elastostatics in arbitrary periodic media

Abstract

This work develops well-posed homogenized strain-gradient models for linear elastostatics and elastodynamics in periodic media, with a primary focus on elastic wave propagation. Using the classical two-scale asymptotic expansion method, we carry out second-order periodic homogenization for media in $\mathbb{R}^d$ ($d = 2, 3$), with no restriction on the periodicity cell geometry or material distribution. Reciprocity identities applied to suitably chosen pairs of cell solutions provide alternative expressions for the effective stiffness and inertia tensors arising at the leading, first and second orders, substantially reducing the number of cell problems that must actually be solved. Since direct two-scale homogenization beyond leading order generically yields ill-posed effective operators, a Boussinesq-trick procedure is introduced, involving a tunable scalar weight, to recast the resulting fourth-order partial differential equation as a valid strain-gradient elasticity (SGE) model possessing the requisite symmetry, sign-definiteness and coercivity properties. These properties are then used, via the Hille-Yosida theorem, to establish the well-posedness of the corresponding transient initial-value and forced-response problems. Several practically relevant special cases are examined, including centrosymmetric cells, homogeneous mass density and homogeneous elasticity, each yielding simplified model structures. Numerical illustrations on three two-dimensional periodicity cells (square, hexagonal and a non-centrosymmetric chiral lattice) compare the resulting dispersion relations against reference Floquet-Bloch computations and assess transient wave propagation, demonstrating the model's capacity to capture anisotropic and dispersive effects beyond classical elasticity while preserving mathematical well-posedness.