Elastic wave propagation in metamaterial rods with periodic shunted piezo-patches

The wave propagation attenuation in low frequencies by using piezoelectric elastic metamaterials has been developed in recent years. These piezoelectric structures exhibit abnormal properties, different from those found in nature, through the artificial design of the topology or exploring the shunt circuit parameters. In this study, the wave propagation in a 1-D elastic metamaterial rod with periodic arrays of shunted piezo-patches is investigated. This piezoelectric metamaterial rod is capable of filtering the propagation of longitudinal elastic waves over a specified range of frequency, called band gaps. The complex dispersion diagrams are obtained by the extended plane wave expansion (EPWE) and wave finite element (WFE) approaches. The comparison between these methods shows good agreement. The Bragg-type and locally resonant band gaps are opened up. The shunt circuits influence significantly the propagating and the evanescent modes. The results can be used for elastic wave attenuation using piezoelectric periodic structures.