Tuning characteristics of a metamaterial beam with lateral-electric-field piezoelectric shuntings

Metamaterials with piezoelectric shuntings have convenient tunability. The increase in the resistance value in the shunting circuit can broaden the bandgap width but lower the vibration attenuation ability. In this study, a piezoelectric unit cell with a lateral electric field (LEF) is applied to a metamaterial beam to improve the resistance-tuning characteristics. The effective stiffness and bandgaps were calculated by using a theoretical method and verified by three-dimensional numerical simulations. Compared with resonators with a thickness electric field, LEF resonators have a stronger piezoelectric coupling, and the extra transferred energy of LEF resonators is reflected in the greater vibration attenuation depth when the increasing degrees of the bandgap widths of the two cases are similar. Therefore, the LEF metamaterial beam exhibits better resistance-tuning characteristics; namely, it can maintain better vibration attenuation properties when the bandgap width is broadened by increasing the resistance value. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.