Inverse design of reconfigurable piezoelectric topological phononic plates

TL;DR

This paper introduces a methodology for designing reconfigurable topological insulators in plate-like structures, enabling real-time control of wave propagation via piezoelectric patches that break symmetry and create protected edge states.

Contribution

It presents a novel inverse design approach for reconfigurable topological phononic plates using topology optimization and piezoelectric control to dynamically manipulate waveguiding properties.

Findings

Design of a phononic unit cell with degeneracy

Piezoelectric patches induce topological band gaps

Edge states exhibit backscattering immunity

Abstract

We present a methodology to perform inverse analysis on reconfigurable topological insulators for flexural waves in plate-like structures. First the unit cell topology of a phononic plate is designed, which offers two-fold degeneracy in the band structure by topology optimization. In the second step, piezoelectric patches bonded over the substrate plate are connected to an external circuit and used appropriately to break space inversion symmetry. The space inversion symmetry breaking opens a topological band gap by mimicking quantum valley Hall effect. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the topologically protected edge state exhibits wave propagation without backscattering and is immune to disorders. Predominantly, the proposed idea enables real-time reconfigurability of the topological interfaces in waveguide applications.