A brief review of dynamic mechanical metamaterials for mechanical energy manipulation

Abstract: In the past decades, many mechanical metamaterials with uncommon static properties have been reported. On the other hand, mechanical metamaterials possessing extraordinary dynamic performance, also referred to as acoustic/elastic metamaterials, have gained more and more attractions. Examples include acoustic cloaking metamaterials that can generate an invisible region for acoustic waves, zero-stiffness metamaterials that can isolate vibrating mechanical energy, origami-based metamaterials that can realize the directional transmission of elastic waves and so on. To better understand the mechanisms adopted in dynamic mechanical metamaterials and present a general view about the existing works, we have reviewed some representative works and categorized them based on the ways of how these mechanical metamaterials manipulate the interactions between matters and mechanical energy. To distinguish the different categories of the dynamic mechanical metamaterials, we use a pair of binary numbers to measure the changing states of the magnitude and direction of the energy flow, respectively. A summary of some research works with associated reference numbers is presented in this paper with emphasis on the operating frequency, working bandwidth, and characteristic size of the element.