A design of active elastic metamaterials for control of flexural waves using the transformation method

Abstract

The ability to control flexural wave propagation is of fundamental interest in many areas of structural engineering and physics. Metamaterials have shown a great potential in subwavelength wave propagation control due to their inherent local resonance mechanism. In this study, we propose a transformation method to derive the material properties of a flexural waveguide and implement the functionality based on a design of active elastic metamaterials. The numerically demonstrated flexural waveguide can not only steer an elastic wave beam as predicted from the transformation method but also exhibit various unique properties including extraordinary wave beam deflection and tunabilities over a broad frequency range and various steering directions. The waveguide is equipped with an array of active elastic metamaterials composed of the electrorheological elastomer subjected to adjustable electric fields. Such metamaterial-based waveguides provide a new design methodology for guided wave signal modulation devices and could be useful for applications such as tunable beam steering, high signal-to-noise sensors, and structural health monitoring.