On the Effective Mass of Mechanical Lattices with Microstructure

TL;DR

This paper develops a general formalism for analyzing the effective mass in mechanical lattices with microstructure, enabling simplified models that accurately capture spectral properties and localized defect modes.

Contribution

It introduces a unified approach to derive frequency-dependent effective mass in microstructured mechanical lattices using multiple methods, applicable to complex systems.

Findings

Effective mass can be modeled as a sum of static and added mass.

Reduced models using effective mass reproduce full lattice spectral properties.

Negative effective mass occurs within bandgaps, affecting localized modes.

Abstract

We present a general formalism for the analysis of mechanical lattices with microstructure using the concept of effective mass. We first revisit a classical case of microstructure being modeled by a spring-interconnected mass-in-mass cell. The frequency-dependent effective mass of the cell is the sum of a static mass and of an added mass, in analogy to that of a swimmer in a fluid. The effective mass is derived using three different methods: momentum equivalence, action equivalence, and dynamic condensation. These methods are generalized to mechanical systems with arbitrary microstructure. As an application, we calculate the effective mass of a $1$D composite lattice with microstructure modeled by a chiral spring-interconnected mass-in-mass cell. A reduced (condensed) model of the full lattice is then obtained by lumping the microstructure into a single effective mass. A dynamic Bloch analysis is then performed using both the full and reduced lattice models, which give the same spectral results. In particular, the frequency bands follow from the full lattice model by solving a linear eigenvalue problem, or from the reduced lattice model by solving a smaller nonlinear eigenvalue problem. The range of frequencies of negative effective mass falls within the bandgaps of the lattice. Localized modes due to defects in the microstructure have frequencies within the bandgaps, inside the negative-mass range. Defects of the outer, or macro stiffness yield localized modes within each bandgap, but outside the negative-mass range. The proposed formalism can be applied to study the odd properties of coupled micro-macro systems, e.g., active matter.