Bringing metamaterials to practice: influence of base material and novel applications

Phononic materials enable unprecedented control over acoustic waves in solids. In real structures, their expected functionalities can however be severely affected by the mechanics of base material. The first part of the talk discusses the influence of linear viscoelasticity on wave attenuation by polymer phononic materials. The accuracy of the mechanical models commonly used to model viscoelastic behavior of polymers is discussed and validated experimentally for conventionally and additively manufactured phononic structures. Next, two application prospects for metamaterials are proposed. These are metamaterial surface patterns for manipulating the aerodynamic and acoustic characteristics of artificial wings and kirigami metasheets as modular actuator arrays in adaptive optics.