Seismic metamaterials based on coupling mechanism of inertial amplification and local resonance

Abstract Inertial amplification mechanisms could be used to control the propagation of elastic waves in beams and slabs, but it was a difficult problem to apply inertial amplification mechanisms to seismic metamaterials to design low-frequency broadband. This paper presents a inertially amplified locally resonant seismic metamaterial (IALR-SM) using the coupling mechanism of inertial amplification and local resonance. In contrast to the locally resonant seismic metamaterial (LRSM), the large-mass columns as local resonators of IALR-SM are attached to the connector and small-mass columns to form the inertia amplification structures. The finite element method calculates the eigenmodes’ band structure and displacement vector field. Numerical results indicated that the bandwidth of the IALR-SM increases by 194% compared to LRSM for seismic surface waves below 20 Hz. The formation mechanism of the yield in large band gaps is attributed to the coupling mechanism of local resonance and inertial amplification. In addition, the numerical effects of geometric parameters on the band gaps are investigated. The findings showed that the side length of the small-mass columns plays a vital role in determining which coupling mechanism is dominant. Finally, field experiments demonstrated that the IALR-SM generates low-frequency broadband.