Effects of the local resonance on the wave propagation in periodic frame structures: Generalized Newtonian mechanics

This work is devoted to the study of the wave propagation in infinite two-dimensional structures made up of the periodic repetition of frames. Such materials are highly anisotropic and, because of lack of bracing, can present a large contrast between the shear and compression deformabilities. Moreover, when the thickness to length ratio of the frame elements is small, these elements can resonate in bending at low frequencies when compressional waves propagate in the structure. The frame size being small compared to the wavelength of the compressional waves, the homogenization method of periodic discrete media is extended to situations with local resonance, and it is applied to identify the macroscopic behavior at the leading order. In particular, the local resonance in bending leads to an effective mass different from the real mass and to the generalization of the Newtonian mechanics at the macroscopic scale. Consequently, compressional waves become dispersive and frequency bandgaps occur. The physical origin of these phenomena at the microscopic scale is also presented. Finally, a method is proposed for the design of such materials. (C) 2012 Acoustical Society of America. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.4744975]