Search

Elastic bulk materials support longitudinal and transverse waves such that the former travels faster in most cases. Anomalous polarization is the case when a transverse wave travels faster, allowing us to engineer the wave propagation via wave steering, scattering control, and mode conversion, which has critical applications in vibration mitigation and ultrasonic imaging. However, realizable materials that exhibit anomalous polarization are rarely found in nature, and architected materials that exhibit this property have only been demonstrated in 2D. In this article, we present 3D auxetic periodic lattice materials that support anomalous wave polarization. Through finite element analysis, we show that these lattices can switch between normal and anomalous behavior via simple geometry changes. We confirm the elasticity condition and qualitatively discuss the guidelines to design lattice materials that support anomalous polarization along a specific wave propagation direction. We show the ability to control the anomalous wave propagation direction by modifying the lattice geometry. Further, we numerically demonstrate mode conservation, deceleration, and acceleration of an incident wave using a material that exhibits anomalous wave polarization. These demonstrations show the potential application of such materials in nondestructive evaluation and medical imaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Periodic lattices offer enhanced mechanical and dynamic properties per unit mass, and the ability to engineer the material response by optimizing the unit cell. Characterizing the effective properties of these lattice materials through experiments can be a time consuming and costly process, so analytical and numerical methods are crucial. Specifically, the Bloch-wave homogenization approach allows one to characterize the effective static properties of the lattice while simultaneously analyzing wave propagation properties such as band gaps, propagating modes, and wave directionality. While this analysis has been used for some time, a thorough study of this approach on three-dimensional (3D) lattice materials with different symmetries and geometries is presented here. Bloch-wave homogenization is applied to extract the effective stiffness tensor of 3D periodic lattices and confirmed with elastostatic homogenization, both within a finite element framework. Multiple periodic lattices with cubic, transversely isotropic, and tetragonal symmetry, including an auxetic geometry, over a wide range of relative densities are analyzed. Further, this approach is used to analyze 3D periodic composite structures, and a way to tailor their overall anisotropy is demonstrated. This work can serve as the basis for nondestructive evaluation of metamaterials properties using ultrasonic velocity measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]