Resonant-base membrane-type acoustic metamaterials (MAMs) are investigated with experiments and simulations. Three exotic phenomena, including negative effective mass density, negative effective bulk modulus, and total absorption are demonstrated. As a start, a single-membrane resonator, which consists of a tightened piece of elastic membrane with a relatively rigid weight attached to the center, is studied in detail. It is shown that due to the anti-resonance, such structure is capable of totally reflecting low-frequency airborne sound. With the help of the simulations, we further reveal that the anti-resonance results in extremely large effective mass density, further explaining the large transmission loss....[ Read more ]

Resonant-base membrane-type acoustic metamaterials (MAMs) are investigated with experiments and simulations. Three exotic phenomena, including negative effective mass density, negative effective bulk modulus, and total absorption are demonstrated. As a start, a single-membrane resonator, which consists of a tightened piece of elastic membrane with a relatively rigid weight attached to the center, is studied in detail. It is shown that due to the anti-resonance, such structure is capable of totally reflecting low-frequency airborne sound. With the help of the simulations, we further reveal that the anti-resonance results in extremely large effective mass density, further explaining the large transmission loss.

By establishing coupling between two MAMs via a sealed section of air, we discovered that the system displays clear monopolar resonance. Consequently, negativity in effective bulk modulus is achieved.

The third kind of MAM is intended to be a perfect absorber for low-frequency sound. The task is accomplished by using asymmetric rigid platelets. We show that the eigenmodes’ displacement profiles have large curvatures around the platelets’ perimeters, implying highly concentrated elastic bending energy. Also, the broken symmetry introduces rotational freedom into our MAM. Consequently, the eigenmodes’ coupling to far-field radiation is effectively reduced, thereby giving rise to strong absorption.