The study of phononic materials and structures is an emerging discipline that lies at the crossroads of vibration and acoustics engineering and condensed matter physics. Broadly speaking, a phononic medium is a material or structural system that usually exhibits some form of periodicity, which can be in the constituent material phases, or the internal geometry, or even the boundary conditions. As such, its overall dynamical characteristics are compactly described by a frequency band structure, in analogy to an electronic band diagram. With roots extended to early studies of periodic systems by Newton and Rayleigh, the field has grown to encompass engineering configurations ranging from trusses and ribbed shells to phononic crystals and metamaterials. While applied research in this area has been abundant in recent years, treatment from a fundamental mechanics perspective, and particularly from the standpoint of dynamical systems, is needed to advance the field in new directions. For example, techniques already developed for the incorporation of damping and nonlinearities have recently been applied to wave propagation in phononic materials and structures. Similarly, numerical and experimental approaches originally developed for the characterization of conventional materials and structures are now being employed toward better understanding and exploitation of phononic systems. This article starts with an overview of historical developments and follows with an in-depth literature and technical review of recent progress in the field with special consideration given to aspects pertaining to the fundamentals of dynamics, vibrations, and acoustics. Finally, an outlook is projected onto the future on the basis of the current trajectories of the field.

We investigate elastic periodic structures characterized by topologically nontrivial bandgaps supporting backscattering suppressed edge waves. These edge waves are topologically protected and are obtained by breaking inversion symmetry within the unit cell. Examples for discrete one and twodimensional lattices elucidate the concept and illustrate parallels with the quantum valley Hall effect. The concept is implemented on an elastic plate featuring an array of resonators arranged according to a hexagonal topology. The resulting continuous structures have non-trivial bandgaps supporting edge waves at the interface between two media with different topological invariants. The topological properties of the considered configurations are predicted by unit cell and finite strip dispersion analyses. Numerical simulations demonstrate edge wave propagation for excitation at frequencies belonging to the bulk bandgaps. The considered plate configurations define a framework for the implementation of topological concepts on continuous elastic structures of potential engineering relevance.

Shunted piezoelectric patches are periodically placed along rods to control the longitudinal wave propagation in these rods. The resulting periodic structure is capable of filtering the propagation of waves over specified frequency bands called stop bands. The location and width of the stop bands can be tuned, using the shunting capabilities of the piezoelectric materials, in response to external excitations and to compensate for any structural uncertainty.A mathematical model is developed to predict the response of a rod with periodic shunted piezoelectric patches and to identify its stop band characteristics. The model accounts for the aperiodicity, introduced by proper tuning of the shunted electrical impedance distribution along the rod. Disorder in the periodicity typically extends the stop bands into adjacent propagation zones and, more importantly, produces the localization of the vibration energy near the excitation source. The conditions for achieving localized vibration are established and the localization factors are evaluated for different levels of disorder on the shunting parameters.The numerical predictions demonstrate the effectiveness and potentials of the proposed treatment that requires no control energy and combines the damping characteristics of shunted piezoelectric films, the attenuation potentials of periodic structures, and the localization capabilities of aperiodic structures. The theoretical investigations presented in this paper provide the guidelines for designing tunable periodic structures with high control flexibility where propagating waves can be attenuated and localized.

Cellular structures like honeycombs or reticulated micro-frames are widely used in sandwich construction because of their superior structural static and dynamic properties. The aim of this study is to evaluate the dynamic behavior of two-dimensional cellular structures, with the focus on the effect of the geometry of unit cells on the dynamics of the propagation of elastic waves within the structure.The characteristics of wave propagation for the considered class of cellular solids are analyzed through the finite element model of the unit cell and the application of the theory of periodic structures. This combined analysis yields the phase constant surfaces, which define the directions of waves propagating in the plane of the structure for the assigned frequency values. The analysis of iso-frequency contour lines in the phase constant surfaces allows the prediction of the location and extension of angular ranges, and therefore regions within the structures where waves do not propagate.The performance of honeycomb grids of regular hexagonal topology is compared with that of grids of various geometries, with the emphasis on configurations featuring a negative Poisson's ratio behavior. The harmonic response of the considered structures at specified frequencies confirms the predictions from the analysis of the phase constant surfaces and demonstrates the strongly spatially-dependent characteristics of periodic cellular structures.The numerical results presented indicate the potentials of the phase constant surfaces as tools for the evaluation of the wave propagation characteristics of this class of two-dimensional periodic structures. Optimal design configurations can be identified in order to achieve the desired transmissibility levels in specified directions and to obtain efficient vibration isolation capabilities. The findings from the presented investigations and the described analysis methodology will provide invaluable guidelines for the prototyping of future concepts of honeycombs or cellular structures with enhanced vibro-acoustics performance.

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We report on the experimental observation of topologically protected edge waves in a two-dimensional elastic hexagonal lattice. The lattice is designed to feature K point Dirac cones that are well separated from the other numerous elastic wave modes characterizing this continuous structure. We exploit the arrangement of localized masses at the nodes to break mirror symmetry at the unit cell level, which opens a frequency bandgap. This produces a non-trivial band structure that supports topologically protected edge states along the interface between two realizations of the lattice obtained through mirror symmetry. Detailed numerical models support the investigations of the occurrence of the edge states, while their existence is verified through full-field experimental measurements. The test results show the confinement of the topologically protected edge states along pre-defined interfaces and illustrate the lack of significant backscattering at sharp corners. Experiments conducted on a trivial waveguide in an otherwise uniformly periodic lattice reveal the inability of a perturbation to propagate and its sensitivity to backscattering, which suggests the superior waveguiding performance of the class of non-trivial interfaces investigated herein.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures, full length articl

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a b s t r a c tThe manuscript reports the outcome of investigations on the phononic properties of a chiral cellular structure. The considered geometry features in-plane hexagonal symmetry, whereby circular nodes are connected through six ligaments tangent to the nodes themselves. In-plane wave propagation is analyzed through the application of Bloch theorem, which is employed to predict two-dimensional dispersion relations as well as illustrate dispersion properties unique to the considered chiral configuration. Attention is devoted to determining the influence of unit cell geometry on dispersion, band gap occurrence and wave directionality. Results suggest cellular lattices as potential building blocks for the design of meta-materials of interest for acoustic wave-guiding applications.