Effects of axial load and structural damping on wave propagation in periodic Timoshenko beams on elastic foundations under moving loads

•Compression makes stop bands shift towards lower velocities and the reverse occurs with tension.•Structural damping dominates the attenuation of waves for a disordered damped beam.•The bands can be tuned according to axial load, damping factor, disorder level and moving load velocity.

The propagation and attenuation properties of waves in ordered and disordered periodic composite Timoshenko beams, which consider the effects of axial static load and structural damping, resting on elastic foundations are studied when the system is subjected to moving loads of constant amplitude with a constant velocity. The transfer matrix methodology is adopted to formulate the model in a reference coordinate system moving with the load. The localization factor is calculated to determine the wave velocity pass bands and stop bands. The interactions between the static axial load and moving load, structural damping and disorder on the bands are analyzed.