Programmable Elastic Wave Control Via Mechanical-Acoustic Interaction in Bistable Metamaterials

Area of Science:

• Solid mechanics
• Acoustics
• Materials science
• Metamaterials

Background:

• Conventional elastic wave metamaterials have fixed structures, limiting their adaptability for specific applications.
• Reconfigurable wave manipulation requires novel approaches beyond static designs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a mechanical-acoustic interaction (MAI) paradigm for mechanically programmable elastic wave control.
• To develop an acoustic dome metamaterial (ADM) with reconfigurable functionalities through bistable mechanical states.

Main Methods:

• The proposed acoustic dome metamaterial (ADM) utilizes modular bistable units that switch between peak and valley configurations.
• Spatially encoding these bistable states allows for reconfiguration of band structure and transmission characteristics.
• Numerical simulations and experimental validation were employed to demonstrate the MAI paradigm.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated low-frequency vibration suppression using the ADM.
• Achieved reconfigurable waveguiding and defect-state-enabled energy localization.
• Introduced a one-press programming strategy for enhanced efficiency and reproducibility.

Conclusions:

• The MAI paradigm offers a physically intuitive and scalable mechanism for elastic wave programming.
• This approach enables reconfigurable acoustic metamaterials and intelligent acoustic devices.
• Mechanical programming of elastic wave control is achieved through reversible bistable states.