Non-Euclidean elastodynamic cloaking theory and application to control of surface seismic waves with pillars atop a thick plate

TL;DR

This paper develops a novel non-Euclidean elastodynamic cloaking theory to control surface seismic waves using pillar-structured thick plates, demonstrating significant wave energy redirection and protection in earthquake engineering scenarios.

Contribution

It introduces a new non-Euclidean cloaking approach for elastodynamic waves, extending light cloaking theories to seismic wave control with practical pillar-based designs.

Findings

Seismic cloaks effectively redirect Rayleigh waves around obstacles.

Cloaking reduces wave amplitude and wavefront disturbance behind obstacles.

Designs are applicable to low-frequency seismic waves in earthquake engineering.

Abstract

In [AIP Advances 6, 121707 (2016)], a soil structured with concrete columns distributed within two specially designed seismic cloaks thanks to a combination of transformational elastodynamics and effective medium theory was shown to detour Rayleigh waves of frequencies lower than 10 Hz around a cylindrical region. The aforementioned studies motivate our exploration of interactions of surface elastic waves propagating in a thick plate (with soil parameters) structured with concrete pillars above it. Pillars are 40 m in height and the plate is 100 m in thickness, so that typical frequencies under study are below 1 Hz, a frequency range of particular interest in earthquake engineering. We demonstrate that three seismic cloaks allow for an unprecedented flow of elastodynamic energy. These designs are achieved by first computing ideal cloaks' parameters deduced from a geometric transform in the Navier equations that leads to almost isotropic and symmetric elasticity (4th order) and density (2nd order) tensors. To do this we extend the theory of Non-Euclidean cloaking for light as proposed by the theoretical physicists Leonhardt and Tyc. In a second step, ideal heterogeneous nearly isotropic cloak's parameters are approximated by averaging elastic properties of sets of pillars placed at the nodes of a bipolar coordinate grid, which is an essential ingredient in our Non-Euclidean cloaking theory for elastodynamic waves. Cloaking effects are studied for a clamped obstacle (reduction of the disturbance of the wave wavefront and its amplitude behind a clamped obstacle). Protection is achieved through reduction of the wave amplitude within the center of the cloak.These results represent a first step towards designs of Non-Euclidean seismic cloaks for surface (Rayleigh and Love) waves propagating in semi-infinite elastic media structured with pillars.