Strategic Damping Placement in Viscoelastic Bandgap Structures: Dissecting the Metadamping Phenomenon in Multiresonator Metamaterials

Energy dissipation in polymeric composite metamaterials requires special mathematical models owing to the viscoelastic nature of their constituents, namely, the polymeric matrix, bonding agent, and local resonators. Unlike traditional composites, viscoelastic metamaterials possess a unique ability to exhibit strong wave attenuation while retaining high stiffness as a result of the "metadamping" phenomenon attributed to local resonances. The objective of this work is to investigate viscoelastic metadamping in one-dimensional multibandgap metamaterials by combining the linear hereditary theory of viscoelasticity with the Floquet-Bloch theory of wave propagation in infinite elastic media. Important distinctions between metamaterial and phononic unit cell models are explained based on the free wave approach with wavenumber-eliminated damping-frequency band structures. The developed model enables viscoelastic metadamping to be investigated by varying two independent relaxation parameters describing the viscoelasticity level in the host structure and the integrated resonators. The dispersion mechanics within high damping regimes and the effects of boundary conditions on the damped response are detailed. The results reveal that in a multiresonator cell, strategic damping placement in the individual resonators plays a profound role in shaping intermediate dispersion branches and dictating the primary and secondary frequency regions of interest, within which attenuation is most required.