Hybridization bandgap induced by an electrical resonance in piezoelectric metamaterial plates

We demonstrate numerically and experimentally the opening of a locally resonant bandgap in an active phononic crystal (PC) made of a homogeneous piezoelectric plate covered by a 1D periodic array of thin electrodes connected to inductive shunts. The application of periodic electrical boundary conditions (EBCs) enables an at will tailoring of the dispersion properties of the PC plate, thus leading to a control of the dispersion of the propagating guided elastic waves in the plate. Depending on the nature of the EBCs, several bandgaps open up, the most important being a Hybridization Bandgap (HBG) in the subwavelength regime. The PC behaves as a locally resonant metamaterial. The HBG originates from the interaction of propagating elastic waves (Lamb modes) with an electrical resonant mode whose dispersion can be effectively described through an equivalent transmission line model. Published by AIP Publishing.