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Nematic liquid crystal elastomers (LCE) exhibit unique mechanical properties, placing them in a category distinct from other viscoelastic systems. One of their most celebrated properties is the ‘soft elasticity’, leading to a wide plateau of low, nearly-constant stress upon stretching, a characteristically slow stress relaxation, enhanced surface adhesion, and other remarkable effects. The dynamic soft response of LCE to shear deformations leads to the extremely large loss behaviour with the loss factor tanδ approaching unity over a wide temperature and frequency ranges, with clear implications for damping applications. Here we investigate this effect of anomalous damping, optimising the impact and vibration geometries to reach the greatest benefits in vibration isolation and impact damping by accessing internal shear deformation modes. We compare impact energy dissipation in shaped samples and projectiles, with elastic wave transmission and resonance, finding a good correlation between the results of such diverse tests. By comparing with ordinary elastomers used for industrial damping, we demonstrate that the nematic LCE is an exceptional damping material and propose directions that should be explored for further improvements in practical damping applications.

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In this study, we propose a 'rainbow' metamaterial to achieve broadband multifrequency vibration attenuation. The rainbow metamaterial is constituted of a Π-shaped beam partitioned into substructures by parallel plates insertions with two attached cantilever-mass acting as local resonators. Both resonators inside each substructure can be non-symmetric such that the metamaterial can have multi-frequency bandgaps. Furthermore, these cantilever-mass resonators have a progressively variant design along the beam, namely rainbow-shaped, for the purpose of achieving broader energy stop bands. Π-shaped beams partitioned by parallel plate insertions can be extended to honeycomb sandwich composites, hence the proposed rainbow metamaterial can serve as a precursor for future honeycomb composites with superior vibration attenuation for more industrial applications. A mathematical model is first developed to estimate the frequency response functions of the metamaterial. Interaction forces between resonators and the backbone structure are calculated by solving the displacement of the cantilever-mass resonators. The plate insertions are modeled as attached masses with both their translational and rotational motion considered. Subsequently, the mathematical model is verified by comparison with experimental results. Metamaterials fabricated through an additive manufacturing technique are tested with a laser doppler receptance measuring system. After the validation of the mathematical model, a numerical study is conducted to explore the influences of the resonator spatial

Recent advances in additive manufacturing have enabled fabrication of phononic crystals and metamaterials which exhibit spectral gaps, or stopbands, in which the propagation of elastic waves is prohibited by Bragg scattering or local resonance effects. Due to the high level of design freedom available to additive manufacturing, the propagation properties of the elastic waves in metamaterials are tunable through design of the periodic cell. In this paper, we outline a new design approach for metamaterials incorporating internal resonators, and provide numerical and experimental evidence that the stopband exists over the irreducible Brillouin zone of the unit cell of the metamaterial (i.e. is a three-dimensional stopband). The targeted stopband covers a much lower frequency range than what can be realised through Bragg scattering alone. Metamaterials have the ability to provide (a) lower frequency stopbands than Bragg-type phononic crystals within the same design volume, and/or (b) comparable stopband frequencies with reduced unit cell dimensions. We also demonstrate that the stopband frequency range of the metamaterial can be tuned through modification of the metamaterial design. Applications for such metamaterials include aerospace and transport components, as well as precision engineering components such as vibration-suppressing platforms, supports for rotary components, machine tool mounts and metrology frames.