On the Limit and Applicability of Dynamic Homogenization

Recent years have seen considerable research success in the field of dynamic homogenization which seeks to define frequency dependent effective properties for heterogeneous composites for the purpose of studying wave propagation. There is an approximation involved in replacing a heterogeneous composite with its homogenized equivalent. In this paper we propose a quantification to this approximation. We study the problem of reflection at the interface of a layered periodic composite and its dynamic homogenized equivalent. It is shown that if the homogenized parameters are to appropriately represent the layered composite in a finite setting and at a given frequency, then reflection at this special interface must be close to zero at that frequency. We show that a comprehensive homogenization scheme proposed in an earlier paper results in negligible reflection in the low frequency regime, thereby suggesting its applicability in a finite composite setting. In this paper we explicitly study a 2-phase composite and a 3-phase composite which exhibits negative effective properties over its second branch. We show that based upon the reflected energy profile of the two cases, there exist good arguments for considering the second branch of a 3-phase composite a true negative branch with negative group velocity. The results open intriguing questions regarding the effects of replacing a semi-infinite periodic composite with its Bloch-wave (infinite domain) dynamic properties on such phenomenon as negative refraction.