Bonding a two-dimensional planar array of small lead discs on an aluminum plate with silicone rubber is shown numerically to focus low-frequency flexural guided waves. The “effective mass density profile” of this type of elastic metamaterials (EMMs), perpendicular to wave propagation direction, is carefully tailored and designed, which allows rays of flexural A₀ mode Lamb waves to bend in succession and then focus through a 7 × 9 planar array. Numerical simulations show that Lamb waves can be focused beyond EMMs region with amplified displacement and yet largely retained narrow banded waveform, which may have potential application in structural health monitoring.

The ability to control elastic wave propagation at a deep subwavelength scale makes locally resonant elastic metamaterials very relevant. A number of abilities have been demonstrated such as frequency filtering, wave guiding, and negative refraction. Unfortunately, few metamaterials develop into practical devices due to their lack of tunability for specific frequencies. With the help of multi-physics numerical modeling, experimental validation of an adaptive elastic metamaterial integrated with shunted piezoelectric patches has been performed in a deep subwavelength scale. The tunable bandgap capacity, as high as 45%, is physically realized by using both hardening and softening shunted circuits. It is also demonstrated that the effective mass density of the metamaterial can be fully tailored by adjusting parameters of the shunted electric circuits. Finally, to illustrate a practical application, transient wave propagation tests of the adaptive metamaterial subjected to impact loads are conducted to validate their tunable wave mitigation abilities in real-time.

A microstructure design of anisotropic resonant inclusions is investigated for the elastic metamaterial plate with the aid of the numerically based effective medium model. Experimental validation is then conducted in the anisotropic metamaterial plate through both harmonic and transient wave testing, from which the anisotropic effective dynamic mass density, group, and phase velocities are determined as functions of frequency. The strongly anisotropic mass density along two principal orientations is observed experimentally and the prediction from the experimental measurements agrees well with that from the numerical simulation. Finally, based on the numerically obtained effective dynamic properties, a continuum theory is developed to simulate different guided wave modes in the elastic metamaterial plate. Particularly, high-order guided wave coupling and repulsion as well as the preferential energy flow in the anisotropic elastic metamaterial plate are discussed.