Dynamic behavior of acoustic metamaterials and metaconfigured structures with local oscillators

Dynamic behavior of acoustic metamaterials (AM) and metaconfigured structures (MCS) with various oscillator-type microstructures or local attachments was investigated. AM derive their unusual elastic wave manipulation capabilities not just from material constituents but more so from engineered microstructural configurations. Depending on the scale of implementation, these microstructures may be deployed as microscopic inclusions in metacomposites or even as complex endo-structures within load-bearing exo-structures in MCS. The frequency-dependent negative effective-mass exhibited by locally resonant microstructures when considered as a single degree of freedom system was experimentally verified using a structure with an internal mass-spring resonator. AM constructed by incorporating resonators in a host material display spatial attenuation of harmonic stress waves within a tunable bandgap frequency range. An apparent damping coefficient was derived to compare the degree of attenuation achieved in these wholly elastic AM to equivalent conventionally damped models illustrating their feasibility as stiff structures that simultaneously act as effective damping elements. Parametric studies were performed using simulations to design and construct MCS with attached resonators for dynamic load mitigation applications. 98% payload isolation at resonance (7 Hz) was experimentally attained using a low-frequency vibration isolator with tip-loaded cantilever beam resonators. Pendulum impact tests on a resonator stack substantiated a peak transmitted stress reduction of about 60% and filtering of the resonator frequencies in the transmitted spectrum. Drop-tower tests were done to gauge the shock mitigation performance of an AM-inspired infrastructural building-block with internal resonators. Proof-of-concept experiments using an array of multifunctional resonators demonstrate the possibility of integrating energy harvesting and transducer capabilities. Stress wave attenuation in locally dissipative AM with various damped oscillator microstructures was studied using mechanical lattice models. The presence of damping was represented by a complex effective-mass. Analytical transmissibilities and numerical verifications were obtained for Kelvin-Voigt-type, Maxwell-type and Zener-type oscillators. Although peak attenuation at resonance is diminished, broadband attenuation was found to be achievable without increasing mass ratio, obviating the bandgap width limitations of locally resonant AM. Static and frequency-dependent measures of optimal damping that maximize the attenuation characteristics were established. A transitional value for the excitation frequency was identified within the locally resonant bandgap, above which there always exists an optimal amount of damping that renders the attenuation for the dissipative AM greater than that for the locally resonant case. AM with nonlinear stiffnesses were also investigated. For a base-excited two degree of freedom system consisting of a master structure and a Duffing-type oscillator, approximate transmissibility was derived, verified using simulations and compared to its equivalent damped model. Analytical solutions for dispersion curve shifts in nonlinear chains with linear resonators and in linear chains with nonlinear oscillators were obtained using perturbation analysis and first order approximations for cubic hardening and softening cases. Amplitude-activated alterations in bandgap width and the possibility of phenomena such as branch curling and overtaking were observed. Device implications of nonlinear AM as amplitude-dependent filters and direction-biased waveguides were examined using simulations