A snowman-like seismic metamaterial.

A snowman-like seismic metamaterial is proposed in this study. The proposed model gives a lower and wider complete bandgap compared with the seismic metamaterials of the same volume in previous research. The vibration modes are investigated to clarify the mechanism of bandgap formation. Past studies used large amounts of steel to attenuate waves at low frequencies. On the contrary, to reduce the cost, this work only uses concrete. In addition, a set of geometric parameters is suggested through parametric studies. The shielding performance of the proposed seismic metamaterials against surface waves is also demonstrated using time domain finite element simulations. The results from the transient analysis are in good agreement with the dispersion curves, validating the accuracy of the numerical simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]