Tunable frequency bandgaps in elastic metamaterials with internal contacts

We design an elastic metamaterial with internal contacts and study the tunable frequency band structure of the metamaterial. It is well-known that the frequency band of granule structures consisting of particles changes depending on the system's compression because of the nonlinearity of the contact between particles. We adopt this efficient tunning mechanism, i.e., contact, in the design of continuum type elastic metamaterials. We first design a unit cell structure showing internal contacts under compression and fabricate it using a 3D printer. We numerically and experimentally identify that the unit cell's stiffness suddenly increases when the internal contact happens. This sudden change of the stiffness induces a change of frequency characteristics of the structure. Here, we demonstrate that internal contacts are useful for designing various frequency bandgaps and tuning them efficiently.