Tunable acoustic waveguide based on vibro-acoustic metamaterials with shunted piezoelectric unit cells

We propose a new class of acoustic waveguides with tunable bandgaps (TBs) by using vibro-acoustic metamaterials with shunted periodic piezoelectric unit cells. The unit metamaterial cells that consist of a single crystal piezoelectric transducer and an electrical shunt circuit are designed to induce a strong vibro-acousto-electrical coupling, resulting in a tunable acoustic bandgap as well as local structural resonance and Bragg scattering bandgaps. The present results show that the TB frequency can be actively controlled and the transmission loss of the acoustic wave can be greatly improved by simply changing the inductance values in the shunt circuit. (paper)