Metamaterial systems and routing of elastic waves in engineered structures

Abstract

The novel idea of by-pass structures is introduced for dynamic multi-scale systems such as elongated multiply supported bridges or tall multi-storey buildings. The by-pass structures prevent catastrophic vibrational damage to occur because of resonances, which are easily overlooked in current design procedures based on industrial computer packages.The ideas can also be applied to the design and study of novel metamaterials and photonic/phononic crystals. The solution of a model problem on an elementary cell provides insights into the wave spectrum of multi-structures and this enables a simple isolation of frequency ranges in which troublesome resonance modes may occur.