The band gap of 1D viscoelastic phononic crystal

The band gap of one dimensional (1D) phononic crystal with viscoelastic host material is studied in this paper. The standard solid model is used to simulate the viscoelastic behavior of the host material and the fillers embedded in the host material are still assumed elastic material. The band gap problem in 1D phononic crystal leads to an eigenvalue problem by using the plane wave expansion method and the Bloch-Floquet wave theory in a periodic structure. An iterative algorithm is designed to obtain the band gap structure due to the dependence of elastic constants on frequency for the viscoelastic host material. A numerical example is given for steel/epoxy phononic crystal. The band gap of 1D phononic crystal is evaluated for different viscoelastic constants, namely, relaxation time, initial and final state elastic modulus. It is found that the viscoelastic constants of host material affect not only the location but also the width of band gaps. (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier B.V.