EAGER: Tuning Granular Phononic Crystals through Pattern Transformations

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This EArly-concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) award supports fundamental research to provide knowledge for a pattern-transformable granular phononic crystal, which may have tunable low-frequency band-gaps. Phononic band-gap materials are composite materials characterized by phononic band-gaps, i.e., frequency ranges in which the propagation of mechanical waves is prohibited. Phononic band-gap materials made of conventional structural materials possess typically fixed narrow phononic band-gaps in some high-frequency ranges. However, unwanted vibrations and noises disturbing human body are characterized by broadband frequency contents in rather low-frequency ranges. Thus, due to this knowledge gap, their practical products has not appeared yet. This new research will open the possibility of practical phononic band-gap materials. Therefore, if this project succeeds, results from this research will benefit the U.S. manufacturing industry. Furthermore, the PI will design hands-on activities relating to pattern transformations for diverse audiences including under-represented minorities and female students. With these activities, the goal is to stimulate students to pursue a career in engineering.The objective of this project is to explore the proof-of-concept of a pattern-transformable two-dimensional granular crystals, which is characterized by its low-frequency tunable phononic band-gaps. The objective is based on the central hypothesis that instability is closely relating to the pattern-transformation-induced bandgap tunability. The hypothesis will be demonstrated by performing the following specific tasks: (1) identification of pattern transform mechanism, (2) experimental validation of the identified mechanism, (3) numerical phononic dispersion relations, and (4) experimental validation of the numerical phononic dispersion relations. The research attempts to take a transformative approach that links conventional instability theory to an uncharted area of granular phononic crystals. Instability phenomenon is nearly length-scale independent. Therefore, the successful completion of this research could have a significant impact in the field of phononic band-gap materials, because the instability-induced mechanism can be adopted for the design of tunable granular phononic crystals using various actuations in a wide range of length scales.