Numerical investigation of periodic metamaterials

Various contributions have shown that periodic structures with specific material composition or geometry layout have favorable dispersion characteristics. A special feature of so called metamaterials is the occurrence of stop bands, being frequency ranges where no free wave propagation is observed. The focus of this contribution lies on two dimensional metamaterials with periodic inclusions and notches. Using the Wave Finite Element Method the dispersion characteristics of periodic metamaterials can be studied on the basis of a Finite Element Model of one repetitive segment (unit cell). The periodicity of the structure is introduced by applying Bloch's Theorem. The scope of this contribution is to investigate the influence of the topology and shape of inclusions and notches on the wave propagation in periodic metamaterials. In continuation of a former publication by the authors a wide-ranging parameter study analyzes the relation between the variance in mass distribution along the unit cell and the stop band behavior.