# Fluid-loaded metasurfaces

## TL;DR

This paper investigates fluid-loaded elastic plates with metasurfaces, demonstrating sub-wavelength control of wave propagation, including rainbow trapping and mode conversion, which are novel for fluid-structure interactions.

## Contribution

It introduces the concept of graded metasurfaces for fluid-loaded structures, enabling wave manipulation phenomena like rainbow trapping and mode conversion, previously unexplored in this context.

## Key findings

- Demonstrated sub-wavelength control of surface waves
- Achieved rainbow trapping in fluid-loaded elastic plates
- Mode conversion from surface to bulk waves

## Abstract

We consider wave propagation along fluid-loaded structures which take the form of an elastic plate augmented by an array of resonators forming a metasurface, that is, a surface structured with sub-wavelength resonators. Such surfaces have had considerable recent success for the control of wave propagation in electromagnetism and acoustics, by combining the vision of sub-wavelength wave manipulation, with the design, fabrication and size advantages associated with surface excitation. We explore one aspect of recent interest in this field: graded metasurfaces, but within the context of fluid-loaded structures. Graded metasurfaces allow for selective spatial frequency separation and are often referred to as exhibiting rainbow trapping. Experiments, and theory, have been developed for acoustic, electromagnetic, and even elastic, rainbow devices but this has not been approached for fluid-loaded structures that support surface waves coupled with the acoustic field in a bulk fluid. This surface wave, coupled with the fluid, can be used to create an additional effect by designing a metasurface to mode convert from surface to bulk waves. We demonstrate that sub-wavelength control is possible and that one can create both rainbow trapping and mode conversion phenomena for a fluid-loaded elastic plate model.