In this paper, we develop a strategy that enables a consistent wave transfer when coupling mechanical models exhibiting various description scales under dynamic loading. Incompatibilities between concurrent models are addressed by a selective filtering based on the perfectly matched layer framework and involving a dedicated projection operator. This filtering, performed in the vicinity of the coupling interface, aims at avoiding spurious wave reflections by automatically killing part of the signal with wavelength range not compatible with the downstream (coarser scale) model while the relevant complementary part is transferred. Performances of the proposed approach are evaluated in details by conducting one‐dimensional and two‐dimensional numerical experiments. The definition of the projection operator, which is a key point of the method, is particularly tackled by analyzing and comparing several possible choices. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.