Band gap enhancement in periodic frames using hierarchical structures

TL;DR

This paper explores how hierarchical, spider web-inspired lattice structures in 1D and 2D phononic crystals can significantly broaden and open new low-frequency band gaps, enhancing their potential for lightweight elastic metamaterials.

Contribution

It introduces hierarchical periodic frames based on spider web architectures to improve band gap properties in phononic crystals, a novel approach in the design of elastic metamaterials.

Findings

Hierarchy broadens existing band gaps.

Hierarchy opens new full band gaps.

Hierarchical structures outperform non-hierarchical ones.

Abstract

The quest for novel designs for lightweight phononic crystals and elastic metamaterials with wide lowfrequency band gaps has proven to be a significant challenge in recent years. In this context, lattice-type materials represent a promising solution, providing both lightweight properties and significant possibilities of tailoring mechanical and dynamic properties. Additionally, lattice structures also enable the generation of hierarchical architectures, in which basic constitutive elements with different characteristic length scales can be combined. In this work, we propose 1D- and 2D-periodic phononic crystals made of spatial frames inspired by a spider web-based architecture. Specifically, hierarchical plane structures based on a combination of frames with a variable cross-section are proposed and exploited to open and enhance band gaps with respect to their non-hierarchical counterparts. Our results show that hierarchy is effective in broadening existing band gaps as well as opening new full band gaps in non-hierarchical periodic structures.