Harnessing tensegrity to design tunable metamaterials for broadband low-frequency wave attenuation

Tensegrity is a structural principle in biomechanics and architecture enabling to design rigid and mechanically stable structures by combining prestressed cables and isolated beams in compression. The present work reports a new class of tunable tensegrity-type metamaterials capable of manipulating the propagation of elastic waves by varying the level of prestrain in incorporated strings or/and manipulating the angle of rotation of inclined bars. We numerically demonstrate the generation of broadband low-frequency band gaps in the proposed meta-structures and analyze their evolution for different geometric and mechanical parameters. The transmission analysis demonstrates excellent wave attenuation efficiency by using a few metamaterial building blocks that makes the proposed meta-structures promising candidates for multiple engineering applications. Our design approach enriches the emerging class of mass-lattice metamaterials and provides meta-structures capable of attenuating elastic waves at broadband ranges in challenging low-frequency regimes.