Disentangling longitudinal and shear elastic waves by neo-Hookean soft devices

Abstract

Longitudinal and shear elastic waves are often spatially entangled in solid media and are difficult to be separated from each other. An efficient approach is proposed to physically split the two types of elastic waves by using soft hyperelastic materials. Invoking the hyperelastic transformation theory, we demonstrate that the longitudinal and shear elastic waves possess distinct characteristics and propagate in different paths in a deformed neo-Hookean material. This principle enables us to design tunable, broadband, and lossless wave-mode splitters by using a simple-shear-deformed neo-Hookean solid. Both theoretical analysis and numerical simulations confirm the high performance of the proposed soft device.