Experimental investigation of bifurcation induced bandgap reconfiguration

By applying an asymmetric on-site restoring force in a 1D chain of oscillators, we demonstrate experimentally that a morphing in the bandgap structure or passive bandgap reconfiguration can be triggered by an increase in environmental excitation amplitude. Recent studies on wave propagation have focused on new capabilities and behaviors resulting from intrinsic nonlinearities. This paper details a bistable experimental design that achieves amplitude dependent filtering through passive bandgap reconfiguration, which is triggered by a bifurcation. The system studied comprises a 1D chain of axially aligned pendulums in dimer unit cells with geometrically nonlinear nearest neighbor coupling where bistability is induced through repulsive magnets. When the bistability is asymmetric, each potential well has a different linear spectra. Though this paper uses mechanically coupled oscillators as an example, the phenomenon itself could be used in any wave propagation media where asymmetric bistability can be implemented. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.