SCIENCE SPIN-OFFS

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Disorder-enhanced subwavelength phenomena in thin elastic solids with heterogeneously tuned resonators

Paolo Celli, Stefano Gonella
(Submitted on 24 Mar 2017)

In this letter, we report on a family of subwavelength wave manipulation effects experimentally observed in metamaterial plates endowed with heterogeneous populations of tunable resonators. We first document effects in terms of wave attenuation, resulting from the interplay between disorder and heterogeneity, illustrating how random spatial arrangements outperform functionally-graded architectures in terms of achievable total bandgap width. We then proceed to demonstrate the onset of subwavelength localization phenomena---whose manifestation is marked by an unconventional bandgap "push-up" that appears to be germane to the problem of elastic wave propagation. To agilely explore the effects of a broad spectrum of architectural modifications on the wave response, we resort to modular stubbed plate specimens, featuring spatially rearrangeable and manually tunable telescopic resonators.

https://arxiv.org/abs/1703.08522