Band structures of phononic-crystal plates in the form of a sandwich-layered structure

This study investigates the propagation of Lamb waves in phononic-crystal plates in the form of a sandwich-layered structure. The composite plates are composed of periodic layers bilaterally deposited on both sides of the homogeneous core layer. Using the analyses of the band structures and the transmission spectra, it is revealed that the core layer may induce significant modulations to the lower-order Lamb modes. The modulations are ascribed to the reshaped particle displacement fields of the eigenmodes. Prominently, the core layer made of soft material (rubber) combines the identical eigenmodes of the periodic layers into a pair of asymmetric and symmetric modes in which case the periodic layers vibrate independently. However, the core layer made of hard material (tungsten) or medium hardness material (silicon) couples the periodic layers tightly, in which case the composites vibrate as a whole. In addition, it is found that the phononic band gaps are very sensitive to the thickness of the core layer; this could be indispensable to practical applications such as bandgap tuning.