Improvement of the band-gap characteristics of active composite laminate metamaterial plates

The characteristics of vibration frequency band-gaps for the composite laminate metamaterial plates are improved by equidistantly placing macro-fiber composite (MFC) piezoelectric patches along one direction of the plates. An acceleration feedback control strategy is proposed to actively regulate the band-gap characteristics of the metamaterial plates. The spectral element method (SEM) and transfer matrix method are used to calculate frequency response curves and attenuation constants of the metamaterial plates, and the calculated results by the SEM are compared with that of the finite element method (FEM) to validate the correctness and accuracy of the present numerical method. The obtained results demonstrate that when lattice constant of the structure is properly designed, superior band-gap properties in the low and medium frequency ranges can be achieved by adjusting the dimensions of the MFC piezoelectric patches. Improved characteristics of the Bragg scattering band-gaps in the medium and high frequency regions can also be obtained using the acceleration feedback control strategy. Moreover, band-gap widths can be significantly enlarged by actively tuning the acceleration feedback gain. In addition, the starting frequencies and band-gap widths of the composite laminate metamaterial plates can be adjusted using different cross-ply angles of the MFC piezoelectric patches and composite laminate metamaterial plates.