Large scale phononic metamaterials for

seismic isolation
Cite as: J. Appl. Phys. 118, 064901 (2015); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4928405
Submitted: 13 March 2015 . Accepted: 30 July 2015 . Published Online: 12 August 2015

N. Aravantinos-Zafiris, and M. M. Sigalas

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 JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 118, 064901 (2015)

Large scale phononic metamaterials for seismic isolation

N. Aravantinos-Zafiris1 and M. M. Sigalas2
1
Department of Sound and Musical Instruments Technology, Ionian Islands Technological
Educational Institute, Stylianou Typaldou ave., Lixouri 28200, Greece
2
Department of Materials Science, University of Patras, Patras 26504, Greece
(Received 13 March 2015; accepted 30 July 2015; published online 12 August 2015)
In this work, we numerically examine structures that could be characterized as large scale
phononic metamaterials. These novel structures could have band gaps in the frequency spectrum of
seismic waves when their dimensions are chosen appropriately, thus raising the belief that they
could be serious candidates for seismic isolation structures. Different and easy to fabricate
structures were examined made from construction materials such as concrete and steel. The
well-known finite difference time domain method is used in our calculations in order to calculate
C 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.
the band structures of the proposed metamaterials. V
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4928405]

I. INTRODUCTION elastomeric isolators.9 Jangid obtained the response of a

one-storey model of a torsionally coupled (asymmetric)
Phononic crystals1,2 are well known periodic structures
building with sliding support to two component random
consisting of materials with large contrasting mechanical
ground motions.10 A new configuration of seismic isolation
properties. They are the acoustic analogue of the photonic
foundation containing several concrete layers and some
crystals, structures which due to their periodic form can
rubber blocks is proposed by Shi et al.11 In this work, the
manipulate electromagnetic waves. The study of the proper-
concrete layers and the rubber blocks are placed periodi-
ties of phononic crystals has attracted a lot of academic inter-
est in the last decades. There are a lot of interesting cally to form a periodic foundation. Kim and Das developed
applications that arise from their periodic distribution of a new method of an earthquake-resistant design to support
inclusions embedded in a host material. One of the most conventional aseismic system using acoustic metamaterials.
interesting properties of phononic crystals is the existence of The device is an attenuator of a seismic wave that reduces
phononic band gaps, i.e., frequency areas where, under cer- the amplitude of the wave exponentially.12 Torres-Silva
tain conditions, propagation of elastic waves is forbidden. and Cabezas propose a simple and practical method of an
The ability of phononic crystals is to create band-gaps in earthquake-resistant design to support conventional aseis-
their frequency response, which means that at a certain fre- mic designs using acoustic metamaterials to reduce the am-
quency range of the incident elastic (or acoustic) pulse, the plitude of a seismic wave exponentially.13 Gaofeng and
wave is completely reflected by the structure, opening new Zhifei introduced a new seismic isolation system called a
perspectives to several new scientific and technological periodic foundation, where inclusions are periodically
areas. So, phononic crystals are a very promising candidate arranged. The periodic foundation is different from the tra-
for numerous applications such as acoustic waveguides, cav- ditional base isolation in which it causes a fundamental fre-
ities and filters, acoustic isolators, and sensors.3–6 Phononic quency shift in the structure, thus reducing its response and
crystal slab is a very common structure that has been theoret- generating a frequency gap.14 Recently, Yan et al. studied
ically and experimentally examined in the recent years.7 numerically and experimentally the seismic isolation of two
Another very interesting structure that is already studied as a dimensional periodic foundations with band gaps that range
3D phononic crystal is the so-called layer-by-layer periodic from 0.5 Hz to 50 Hz.15 Br^ule et al. showed the experimen-
structure.8 tal results of a seismic test carried out using seismic waves
Transferring the concept of phononic crystals in civil en- generated by a monochromatic vibrocompaction mode.16
gineering in order to achieve base isolation of a building due Finocchio et al. introduced a seismic metamaterial com-
to a seismic event is a very interesting challenge. Base isola- posed of a chain of mass-in-mass system, which is able to
tion is a new and an effective way to improve the seismic filter the S-waves of an earthquake.17
response of a building due to an earthquake in contrast to tra- Aravantinos-Zafiris et al.18 reported results for a new
ditional seismic design methods which aimed to increase the layer-by-layer structure, which was studied as a candidate
strength of the structural parts of the building. The last three for pentamode behavior and other interesting elastic meta-
decades there has been a lot of scientific interest and plenty material properties. The structure had a simple cubic symme-
of theoretical and experimental work which involves the try with connecting silicon rods, and it was an easy to
base isolation of a building against an earthquake. Kelly fabricate structure. Figure 10 of Ref. 18 shows the three-
described implementations of base isolation and an approxi- dimensional structure. Transferring the idea of this metama-
mate linear theory of isolation, which can be used for the terial to a larger scale could give very useful and promising
design of base isolation systems that use multilayer results in the area of seismic isolation. The same structure

0021-8979/2015/118(6)/064901/6/$30.00 118, 064901-1 C 2015 AIP Publishing LLC

V
064901-2 N. Aravantinos-Zafiris and M. M. Sigalas J. Appl. Phys. 118, 064901 (2015)

was numerically investigated with concrete being the mate- constant depended on the usage of each structure. And for
rial of the rods. Additional calculations with rubber inclu- this reason, we present all of our results to a scale higher
sions in the structure were also done. In this work, we also than the range of 0.5 Hz–50 Hz, in order to emphasize the
numerically examine a novel structure consisting of periodi- importance of the choice of the lattice constant length and to
cally arranged concrete columns. The unit cell of this struc- show that the proposed structures could have multiple areas
ture is a column from concrete, which has a smaller cross of usage.
section at the one edge. From the numerical calculations of
the band structure, we can investigate the phononic band III. THE STRUCTURES
gaps that the structure performs. Choosing a suitable lattice
A. The simple cubic layer-by-layer structure
constant appropriate for the construction of the base of a
building, it is expected the band gaps to appear in a fre- The first structure that was numerically examined as a
quency area of the seismic waves, i.e., from 0.5 Hz to 50 Hz. candidate for antiseismic protection is the simple cubic
layer-by-layer structure. Numerical calculations were per-
II. NUMERICAL METHOD formed in order to calculate the band structure of the struc-
ture. Figure 1(a) shows the computational cell, and Figure
For the calculation of the band structure, the finite dif-
1(b) shows the X-Y plane of the structure at the center of z
ference time domain (FDTD) method was used. In the calcu-
axis of the computational cell (which is by symmetry equiva-
lations, only one unit cell was used with Periodic Boundary
lent with the other two planes X-Z and Y-Z of the structure).
Conditions (PBC) along each direction, as a result of the
The calculations were done for a ¼ 1 m, w=a ¼ 20=120;
Bloch theorem.8 The excitation, taken as a Gaussian pulse in
and d=a ¼ 8=120 for concrete rods, where w is the width of
time, was located at one low symmetry point of the unit cell.
each rod and d is the width of the smaller cross section part
The components of the displacement vector as a function of
of it. From the band structure, which is shown in Figure 2,
time were collected in the detection point (in another low
we can see that there are two band gaps from 0.036 kHz to
symmetry point of the unit cell). However, the results are not
0.325 kHz and from 0.632 kHz to 1.278 kHz, respectively,
dependent on the location of the excitation or the detection
for the transverse components of the field. Additionally, two
point. Each component was Fourier transformed. The
full band gaps for all the components of the field were found
resulted spectrum consisted of well-defined resonant peaks
from 1.278 kHz to 2.224 kHz and from 2.75 kHz to 3.08 kHz.
that correspond to band structure points for the particular k
It is very important to mention again that the results pre-
vector. The k vector components along the examined direc-
sented are for the lattice constant a ¼ 1 m. Assuming higher
tion in k space are defined as ky ¼ 2p 2p
a and kz ¼ a , where a is lattice constant, the frequencies of the band gaps are rescaled
the unit cell size along the examined direction. Changing the
depended on the choice of the lattice constant. For example,
k vector value used in the PBC, the band structure could be
in the very extreme case of choosing a ¼ 100 m, all the fre-
obtained. In our calculations, the highest value of the k vec-
quencies of the band gaps will be divided by 100 and they
tor was 0.5 starting from 0 and the step size was 0.1. Due to
will appear in the frequency area of interest between 0.5 Hz
the cubic grid used in the FDTD calculations, a 3D orthogo-
and 50 Hz. Even though this value for the lattice constant
nal lattice was used as computational cell (coinciding with
seems extremely high, it could be an idea for isolation not
the irreducible cell) consisting of 120  120  120 grid
just of a single building but for a whole area.
points along x, y, and z axes, respectively. It is important to
It is already known from literature that an effective way
mention here that x, y, and z directions are by symmetry
to obtain band gaps in a low frequency region is to increase
equivalent for the simple cubic layer-by-layer structure. In
the material mismatch of the unit cell of the structure.
the same way, x and z directions are also by symmetry equiv-
alent for the concrete column structure.
The three materials studied in this work are concrete, rub-
ber, and steel. Concrete and steel are materials that are mostly
used in building structures, and rubber is a material that is
recently used in literature (see, for example, Ref. 11). The den-
sity q, the longitudinal ðcl Þ, and transverse (cs Þ components of
velocity for the materials used in our calculations are: For con-
crete, q ¼ 2:3 g=cm3 , cl ¼ 3:475 km=s, and cs ¼ 2:022 km=s,
for rubber q ¼ 1:3 g=cm3 , cl ¼ 0:023 km=s ; and cs
¼ 0:0056 km=s; and for steel q ¼ 7:9g=cm3 , cl ¼ 5:79km=s;
and cs ¼ 3:10km=s:
Assuming that the lattice constant a ¼ 1 m, the frequen-
FIG. 1. The computational cell (a) and the X-Y plane at the center of the
cies are expected in the order of kilohertz. But it is important computational cell (which is identical to the unit cell) (b) of the simple
to be mentioned here that the results can be scaled in any cubic layer-by-layer structure studied in this work. The width of each rod,
other value of a, assuming that the sound velocities and den- which has a square cross-section, is symbolized as w at its thick part and d
at its thinner part. The rubber inclusion in the center of the computational
sity are independent of frequency. This scaling property of
cell, where the rods connect, is symbolized with the red square. Periodic
the examined structures is very crucial because it gives them boundary conditions were considered along every direction of the compu-
a kind of “scale flexibility” allowing to adjust the lattice tational cell.
064901-3 N. Aravantinos-Zafiris and M. M. Sigalas J. Appl. Phys. 118, 064901 (2015)

FIG. 2. The band structure of the sim-

ple cubic layer-by-layer phononic
structure (a ¼ 1 m, w=a ¼ 20=120,
and d=a ¼ 8=120) for propagation
along z direction. The horizontal axis
is the normalized k-vectors along the
stacking z-direction (which is the same
as the x and y directions due to sym-
metry). Dashed line is for the field
component along the z-axis (longitudi-
nal mode), and solid line is for the field
component along the y-axis (transverse
mode). The component along x-axis is
due to symmetry the same as the com-
ponent along x-axis for case.

Rubber is a material which is already used in recent stud- moved to slightly lower values but the gap is not as wide as
ies11,19 in order to compose periodic structures that have in the simple concrete rods. So, there is no significant
phononic band gaps at low frequencies. So, it would be very advantage with the addition of the rubber inclusions.
interesting to further investigate how the gaps of the pro-
posed simple cubic layer-by-layer structure could be affected B. The concrete columns structure
when rubber inclusions are added into the structure. The new
Another structure that was studied for its ability to per-
configuration of the structure is formed by replacing the
form band gaps in order to prevent seismic waves is the one
small part where the concrete rods connect in the center of
shown in Figure 3. The unit cell of the structure consists of a
the unit cell with rubber, as shown in Figure 1(b). The rubber
column constructed of concrete. The basic idea is that the
inputs in the structure were considered as small inclusions in
column has a smaller cross section part. The width of the
the center of the unit cell. The numerical method used for
structure is symbolized as w, which is the same as the thick-
the calculations of this work does not provide any informa-
ness of the column. The part of the column with smaller
tion about the static response of the structure. It is expected
cross section has width d, which is the same as its thickness.
that the rubber inclusions may significantly affect the static
response of the structure. However, our only consideration The length of the part of the column with smaller cross sec-
here is to find out how they affect the phononic band gaps. tion is symbolized as L. Due to the periodicity of this struc-
This is the reason why in the rest of this study there is no fur- ture, it could be the composite structure of the base of a
ther consideration of rubber inclusions. As expected, we can building. The numerical calculations were done for several
see that with the use of rubber inclusions the edges of the values of the geometric parameters of the structure. Setting
band gaps taking lower values. The first band gap for the a ¼ 1 m, w=a ¼ 41=120, d=a ¼ 7=120, and L=a ¼ 13=120,
transverse modes of the field is now taking values from we calculate the band structure shown in Figure 4. There is a
0.029 kHz to 0.13 kHz. Comparing with the case of simple band gap from 0.044 kHz to 0.183 kHz for the transverse
concrete rods (where the band gap calculated from modes of the field. Setting a ¼ 1 m, w=a ¼ 120=120,
0.036 kHz to 0.325 kHz for the transverse components of the d=a ¼ 7=120, and L=a ¼ 13=120, the band gap has its lower
field), we can see that the lower edge of the band gap is

FIG. 3. The computational cell (which is identical to the unit cell) of the col- FIG. 4. The band structure of the concrete column phononic structure
umn structure studied in this work. The width of column, which has a square (a ¼ 1 m; w=a ¼ 41=120, and d=a ¼ 7=120) for propagation along y direc-
cross-section, is symbolized as w at its thick part and d at its thinner part. tion. The horizontal axis is the normalized k-vectors along y-direction.
The length of its thin part is symbolized as L. Periodic boundary conditions Dashed line is for the field component along the y-axis (longitudinal mode),
were considered along every direction of the computational cell. (a) The and solid line is for the field component along the z-axis (transverse mode).
case where w=a ¼ 41=120, d=a ¼ 7=120, and L=a ¼ 13=120 and (b) the The component along x-axis is due to symmetry the same as the component
case where w=a ¼ 120=120, d=a ¼ 7=120 and L=a ¼ 13=120. along z-axis.
064901-4 N. Aravantinos-Zafiris and M. M. Sigalas J. Appl. Phys. 118, 064901 (2015)

TABLE II. Concrete column first band gap for w=a ¼ 1, d=a ¼ 8=120, and
different values of L=a.

First band gap First band gap

lower edge higher edge
Field frequency at frequency at
L=a Direction component k ¼ 0.5 (kHz) k ¼ 0.5 (kHz) Dx (kHz)

10/120 ky x 0.087 1.127 1.040

10/120 ky y 0.195 1.813 1.618
10/120 ky z 0.097 1.127 1.029

20/120 ky x 0.054 1.242 1.188

20/120 ky y 0.148 1.752 1.603
FIG. 5. The band structure of the concrete column phononic structure 20/120 ky z 0.051 1.239 1.188
(a ¼ 1 m; w=a ¼ 120=120, and d=a ¼ 7=120) for propagation along y direc-
tion. The horizontal axis is the normalized k-vectors along the y-direction. 40/120 ky x 0.025 1.484 1.459
Dashed line is for the field component along the y-axis (longitudinal mode), 40/120 ky y 0.130 1.676 1.545
and solid line is for the field component along the z-axis (transverse mode). 40/120 ky z 0.029 1.329 1.300
The component along x-axis is due to symmetry the same as the component
along z-axis. 60/120 ky x 0.025 0.778 0.753
60/120 ky y 0.126 1.549 1.423
edge at 0.068 kHz to 1.16 kHz for the transverse modes of 60/120 ky z 0.025 0.693 0.668
the field as shown in the band structure of Figure 5. The fact
that the band gap was wider for the second case leads us to
for the case of steel. This should be expected because the
continue our calculations for w=a ¼ 120=120. It is clear that
sound velocities of steel are higher. Although our study is
as the column leads to smaller cross section, the band gap
focused on concrete as the main material of the proposed
becomes wider and its lower edge frequency decreases.
structures, the results for steel indicate that the proposed struc-
Tables I and II contain the results for different parameters of
tures could have very interesting and promising results and for
the structure. Table I contains numerical calculations for
other materials that are widely used in civil engineering.
a ¼ 1 m, w=a ¼ 1, L=a ¼ 20=120, and different values of
A very interesting calculation is the one that the smaller
d=a. It is clear from the results that as d=a increases, the first
cross section part of the column was replaced by 5 thin col-
band gap of the structure decreases and exits out of the fre-
umns of equal thickness. So, for the case of column with
quency area of interest with its lower frequency edge
the thickness a ¼ 1 m, w=a ¼ 1, d=a ¼ 4=120, and L=a
increasing. On the other hand, increasing L=a seems to trans-
¼ 20=120, instead of one smaller cross section part of the
fer the first band gap of the structure into the frequency area
column with w=a ¼ 4=120, five small columns were periodi-
of interest. For the cases of Table I, we examined the case
cally placed at the end of the structure. The X-Z plane of the
where the columns are made from steel, which is another
structure at the end of the computational cell is shown in
material that is widely used in civil engineering. The results
Figure 6, where there are five small columns instead of one.
of our calculations are collected in Table III. It is clear from
The result showed a band gap from 0.044 kHz to 1.238 kHz
the results that the band gaps are wider for the case of steel.
for the transverse modes of the field proving the importance
Also, the phononic band gaps appear at higher frequencies
of the smaller cross section part of the structure. This is a
TABLE I. Concrete column first band gap for w=a ¼ 1, L=a ¼ 20=120, and very interesting result, because the structure with five smaller
different values of d=a. cross section columns is a structure that could be possible to
be fabricated by the engineers since the initial structure with
First band gap First band gap
lower edge higher edge TABLE III. Steel column first band gap for w=a ¼ 1, L=a ¼ 20=120, and
Field frequency at frequency at different values of d=a.
d=a Direction component k ¼ 0.5 (kHz) k ¼ 0.5 (kHz) Dx (kHz)
First band gap First band gap
4/120 ky x 0.025 1.242 1.217 lower edge higher edge
4/120 ky y 0.079 1.737 1.658 Field frequency at frequency at
4/120 ky z 0.022 1.239 1.217 d Direction component k ¼ 0.5 (kHz) k ¼ 0.5 (kHz) Dx (kHz)

8/120 ky x 0.054 1.242 1.188 4 ky x 0.048 1.925 1.877

8/120 ky y 0.148 1.752 1.604 4 ky y 0.144 2.720 2.576
8/120 ky z 0.051 1.239 1.188 4 ky z 0.048 1.925 1.877

16/120 ky x 0.130 1.235 1.105 8 ky x 0.096 1.925 1.829

16/120 ky y 0.256 1.784 1.528 8 ky y 0.241 2.744 2.503
16/120 ky z 0.126 1.235 1.109 8 ky z 0.096 1.925 1.829

32/120 ky x 0.275 1.221 0.946 16 ky x 0.217 1.925 1.708

32/120 ky y 0.426 1.874 1.448 16 ky y 0.433 2.792 2.359
32/120 ky z 0.274 1.221 0.946 16 ky z 0.217 1.925 1.708
064901-5 N. Aravantinos-Zafiris and M. M. Sigalas J. Appl. Phys. 118, 064901 (2015)

FIG. 6. The X-Z plane of the modified column structure that has five thinner
columns at the end instead of one. All five small columns have square cross sec- FIG. 8. The band structure of the second modification of the concrete col-
tions (black squares in the figure) and the width of each one is d=a ¼ 4=120. umn structure (a ¼ 1 m, w=a ¼ 120=120, and d=a ¼ 8=120) for propagation
along y direction. The horizontal axis is the normalized k-vectors along the
stacking y-direction. Dashed line is for the field component along the y-axis
one smaller cross section column could have a static prob- (longitudinal mode), and solid line is for the field component along the
lem. The main conclusion from this part of our study is that z-axis (transverse mode). The component along x-axis is due to symmetry
the same as the component along z-axis.
the smaller cross section part of the column is the reason for
the band gaps and those band gaps remain almost the same if structure. In particular, there is a maximum transmission drop
more than one smaller cross section parts are assumed, thus inside the band gap of about 10 dB and 20 dB for one and two
making the structure possible to be fabricated. That suggests unit cells, respectively, and the longitudinal modes (Fig. 9(a)).
that a structure with a very dense array of thin columns will The drop is even stronger for the transverse components reach-
improve any static response problems without changing the ing a maximum of about 16 and 26 dB for one and two unit
seismic isolation response. cells, respectively. It is also interesting that the flat band
Finally, another calculation was performed for another appearing at around 0.8 kHz for the transverse modes is barely
modification of the column structure. Instead of one column noticeable only in the one unit cell transmission calculation
with a smaller cross section, we included two smaller columns apparently due to weak coupling with the incoming waves.
with a smaller cross section of each one. The Y-Z plane of the The importance of this structure, together with all of its
structure (which is equivalent to the X-Y plane due to symme- modifications, is that the frequencies of the band gaps are
try) is shown in Figure 7. This structure has almost the half lat- much closer to the frequency area of interest, i.e., from 0.5 Hz
tice constant of the one studied previously. Figure 8 shows the to 50 Hz. Considering the fact that we have chosen lattice con-
band structure of this structure. The first band gap for this stant a ¼ 1 m, increasing the latter to a ¼ 10 m (which is a
structure is from 0.11 kHz to 0.83 kHz. Additionally, in order value very realistic for a base of a building), all the previously
to have more clear view of the results of the structure shown in reported frequencies (including the results in Tables I and II)
Figure 8, we proceeded to the calculation of the transmission for this structure will decrease 10 times, thus falling into the
spectrum (T). We performed calculations for one unit cell and frequency area of seismic waves. It is already known that
two unit cells of the structure to see how the band gaps are there are currently two approaches to obtain band gaps at
affected by the number of the unit cells. Figure 9 shows the lower frequencies: increasing the size of the unit cell or using
transmission spectrum for those cases both for the longitudinal materials with low densities and sound velocities (such as rub-
and the transverse components of the field. It is clear from ber).11,19 Our study could be considered as a third way to
Figures 8 and 9 that the results regarding the location of the obtain band gaps at lower frequencies by using arrays of col-
bands and the width of the phononic band gaps are almost umns. The calculations presented (for example, in Table I)
identical. Additionally, it is clear that the band gap for both the show that indeed the lower edge of the band gap can signifi-
longitudinal and the transverse component of the field has cantly be reduced (although not as much as in the case of rub-
almost the double depth for the case of two unit cells of the ber inclusions11) by reducing the width of the columns.

FIG. 7. The X-Y plane of the second

modification of the column structure. The
structure consists of two columns like the
one initially studied. As shown in the fig-
ure, s=a ¼ 20=120, L=a ¼ 40=120, and
d=a ¼ 8=120. w=a ¼ 120=120 as in the
initial case. Periodic boundary conditions
were considered along every direction of
the computational cell.
064901-6 N. Aravantinos-Zafiris and M. M. Sigalas J. Appl. Phys. 118, 064901 (2015)

the field for the same case, we have a full band gap from
7.9 Hz to 124 Hz, which is also a very wide frequency area
within the seismic spectrum. The results of our study could be
considered as a third way to obtain band gaps at lower fre-
quencies by using arrays of columns. Finally, the “scale
flexibility” of the structures makes them even more powerful
for further study and experimental investigation.

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