The metamaterials applications for protecting buildings by manipulating seismic waves, such as nuclear power plants and ancient buildings protection, have garnered considerable attention. A new type of ultra-low frequency broadband radial seismic metamaterial (RSM) has been proposed in this paper. Contrary to traditional seismic metamaterials (SMs), the proposed RSMs are arranged with radially periodic steel rings embedded in the soil. The propagation characteristics of seismic Lamb waves and surface waves in RSM are investigated. Additionally, the dispersion relations and displacement vector fields are determined by using the finite element method. As the numerical discussion, lower and wider bandgap characteristics for seismic Lamb waves and surface waves are shown in RSM in contrast to the SM. For seismic Lamb waves, the RSM with rectangular cross-section exhibits the beginning frequency of bandgaps as low as 1.6 Hz, with a bandwidth ratio of 81.27% increased by 65.33% relative to the SM in the range of 0.1–50 Hz, which is produced by the coupling between the seismic Lamb modes and local resonance; for surface waves, RSM also has a low-frequency broadband and larger relative band width of bandgap (57.5%) than the SM with the same lattice constant and filling fraction, which is caused by coupling of the overall axial resonance and Rayleigh waves mode. Furthermore, the influence of geometric parameters and material properties of RSM on bandgap characteristics is obtained. Finally, a 3D full-scale finite period model, which involves in-plane and out-of-plane modes, is designed to demonstrate the earthquake shielding performance of RSM. The proposed shielding approach could provide a better alternative in the field of seismology and related areas of ultra-low frequency vibration damping or blast protection.

Inertial amplification mechanisms could be used to control the propagation of elastic waves in beams and slabs, but it was a difficult problem to apply inertial amplification mechanisms to seismic metamaterials to design low-frequency broadband. This paper presents a inertially amplified locally resonant seismic metamaterial (IALR-SM) using the coupling mechanism of inertial amplification and local resonance. In contrast to the locally resonant seismic metamaterial (LRSM), the large-mass columns as local resonators of IALR-SM are attached to the connector and small-mass columns to form the inertia amplification structures. The finite element method calculates the eigenmodes’ band structure and displacement vector field. Numerical results indicated that the bandwidth of the IALR-SM increases by 194% compared to LRSM for seismic surface waves below 20 Hz. The formation mechanism of the yield in large band gaps is attributed to the coupling mechanism of local resonance and inertial amplification. In addition, the numerical effects of geometric parameters on the band gaps are investigated. The findings showed that the side length of the small-mass columns plays a vital role in determining which coupling mechanism is dominant. Finally, field experiments demonstrated that the IALR-SM generates low-frequency broadband.

With the aim to reduce the total structural weight, this paper presents a novel radial multi-layered elastic metamaterial (EM) shaft in which the scattering layer is circumferentially discretized into several arc-shaped sections with rotational symmetry. The dispersion relations and frequency-response-functions (FRF) of a finite structure are determined numerically first with different discretized geometries. To illustrate the mechanisms of band gaps, the eigenmodes were extracted and analyzed together with dispersion relations and FRF. The results show that in contrast to conventional multi-layered EM shafts, the proposed EM shaft with the weight being reduced by 34% can still yield broadband gaps at low-frequencies and by properly selecting the discretized geometry the band gap ranging from 139 to 197Hz exists for all three elastic wave modes. The results presented in this paper demonstrate a potential design strategy in stabilized shaft engineering.

This letter presents a thin plate structure with an acoustic black hole (ABH) sub-unit to reorient the flexural wave. Different from the previously reported flexural wave metasurface, ABH sub-units are introduced into thin plates in this work, which can control the group velocity of flexural waves and realize their efficient transmission. According to generalized Snell's law, the mechanism of phase shift of transmitted waves across subwavelength sub-units is theoretically revealed. An analysis of the ABH sub-units is established by the finite element method. The deflection and focusing effect of flexural waves are demonstrated. Furthermore, adjusting the black hole section can quickly obtain the transmission phase response in the range of 2π, and it can accurately predict the phase shift and amplitude of the transmitted wave. The results show that the ABH beam-plate structure can effectively control the propagation direction of flexural waves, which provides a modern design idea and method for the manipulation and energy harvesting of the flexural wave.

Anchor loss is usually the most significant energy loss factor in Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) resonators, which seriously hinders the application of MEMS resonators in wireless communication. This paper proposes a cross-section connection phononic crystal (SCC-PnC), which can be used for MEMS resonators of various overtone modes. First, using the finite element method to study the frequency characteristics and delay line of the SCC-PnC band, the SCC-PnC has an ultra-wide bandgap of 56.6–269.6 MHz. Next, the effects of the height h and the position h₁ of the structural parameters of the small cross-connected plate on the band gap are studied, and it is found that h is more sensitive to the width of the band gap. Further, the SCC-PnC was implanted into the piezoelectric MEMS resonator, and the admittance and insertion loss curves were obtained. The results show that when the arrangement of 4 × 7 SCC-PnC plates is adopted, the anchor quality factors of the third-order overtone, fifth-order overtone, and seventh-order overtone MEMS resonators are increased by 1656 times, 2027 times, and 16 times, respectively.

Fretting wear phenomenon has a non-negligible impact on the reliability of the contact parts of mechanical power systems. The impact of temperature increases in actual working conditions is taken into consideration in order to increase the accuracy of fretting wear prediction. Temperature-dependent wear coefficients were added to the energy dissipation wear model, and the UMESHMOTION subroutine was created. A temperature-displacement-coupled finite element model of fretting wear is established based on a cylinder/plane fretting test of Ti-6Al-4V alloy materials. The model takes into account the interaction between temperature, stress, and wear. The effects of the plastic deformation of materials, temperature, number of cycles, fretting velocity, and variable normal load on wear and temperature rise are explored. The results show that the wear amount is small when the temperature rises, and the plastic deformation of materials is not considered. The wear profile is no longer a smooth Hertzian shape when the plastic deformation of materials is considered. The amount of wear increases with the fretting speed and the number of cycles. Meanwhile, the temperature of the contact area and the surface near the contact area increases with the increase in fretting speed. Peak temperature rise of the contact surface increases with the number of cycles, and its horizontal position moves with the cylinder specimen. Furthermore, the wear profile is less smooth under the variable normal load, but the two variable normal loads in the same phase have similar wear profiles and temperature rise distributions. The theoretical resources provided by the research work can be used to design control strategies and optimize mechanical power systems.