Elastic bandgap widening and switching via spatially varying materials and buckling instabilities

Abstract

Efficient control over elastic wave transmission is often critical in the design of architected materials. In this work, lattices that achieve buckling induced band gaps are designed with spatially varying material properties to leverage both effects for enhanced wave control. Each unit cell exhibits a large shape change when subjected to an external activation. Unit cells with discrete material properties are then arranged in different spatial configurations. Numerical simulations for transmission through the example structures demonstrate both bandgap widening due to different material properties in adjacent unit cells and switching at different deformation states.