Partially embedded metabarrier to suppress surface waves in granular media

Abstract

The gravity-induced depth-dependent elastic properties of a granular half-space result in multiple dispersive surface modes and demand the consideration of material heterogeneity in metabarrier designs to suppress surface waves. Numerous locally resonant metabarrier configurations have been proposed in the literature to suppress Rayleigh surface waves in homogeneous media, with little focus on extending the designs to a heterogeneous half-space. In this work, a metabarrier comprising partially embedded rod-like resonators to suppress the fundamental dispersive surface wave modes in heterogeneous granular media known as first order PSV (PSV1; where P is the longitudinal mode and SV is the shear-vertical mode) and second order PSV (PSV2) is proposed. The unit-cell dispersion analysis, together with an extensive frequency-domain finite element analysis, reveals preferential hybridization of the PSV1 and PSV2 modes with the longitudinal and flexural resonances of the resonators, respectively. The presence of the cutoff frequency for the longitudinal-resonance hybridized mode facilitates straightforward suppression of the PSV1 mode, while PSV2 mode suppression is possible by tailoring the hybridized flexural resonance modes. These PSV1 and PSV2 bandgaps are realized experimentally in a granular testbed comprising glass beads by embedding 3D-printed resonator rods. Also explored are novel graded metabarriers capable of suppressing both PSV1 and PSV2 modes over a broad frequency range for potential applications in vibration control and seismic isolation.