A chiral elastic metamaterial beam for broadband vibration suppression

One of the significant engineering applications of the elastic metamaterial (EMM) is for low-frequency vibration attenuation because of its unusual low-frequency bandgap behavior. However, the forbidden gap from many existing EMMs is usually of narrow bandwidth which limits their practical engineering applications. In this paper, a chirallattice-based EMM beamwith multiple embedded local resonators is suggested to achieve broadband vibration suppression without sacrificing its load-bearing capacity. First, a theoretical beam modeling is suggested to investigate bandgap behavior of an EMM beam with multiple resonators. New passbands due to dynamic interaction between resonators are unpleasantly formed, which become a design barrier for completely broadband vibration suppression. Through vibration attenuation factor analysis of the resonator, an EMM beam with section-distributed resonators is proposed to enable broadband vibration attenuation function. Required unit number of the resonator in each section is quantitatively determined for complete vibration attenuation in a specific frequency range. Finally, the chiral-lattice-based EMM beam is fabricated, and experimental testing of the proposed structure is conducted to validate the design. & 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.