Significance: Architected material used to control elastic wave propagation has thus far relied on two mechanisms for forming band gaps, or frequency ranges that cannot propagate: ( i ) Phononic crystals rely on their structural periodicity to form Bragg band gaps, but are limited in the low-frequency ranges because their unit cell size scales with wavelength; and ( ii ) Metamaterials overcome this size dependence because they rely on local resonances, but the resulting band gaps are very narrow. Here, we introduce a class of materials, elastic metastructures, that exploit resonating elements to broaden and lower Bragg gaps while reducing the mass of the system. This approach to band-gap engineering can be used for low-frequency vibration absorption and wave guiding across length scales.

This research experimentally characterizes the efficiency of Lamb wave mode pairs to generate the cumulative second harmonic in an undamaged aluminum plate. Previous research developed the theoretical framework for the characteristics of second harmonic generation of Lamb waves in nonlinear elastic plates, and identified five mode types where the amplitude of the measured second harmonic should increase linearly with ultrasonic wave propagation distance. The current research considers one of these five mode types, Lamb wave mode pairs at the longitudinal velocity, and experimentally confirms the theoretically predicted ratios of the rate of accumulation of the second harmonic amplitude versus propagation distance for two different Lamb wave mode pairs. By comparing these rates of accumulation, these experimental results are used to characterize the measurement efficiency of the mode pairs under consideration.