International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 228 (2022) 107473

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International Journal of Mechanical Sciences

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijmecsci

A nonlinear metamaterial plate for suppressing vibration and

sound radiation
Xin Fang a, b, *, Peng Sheng a, Jihong Wen a, Weiqiu Chen c, Li Cheng b, *
a
Laboratory of Science and Technology on Integrated Logistics Support, College of Intelligent Science, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha, Hunan
410073, China
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
c
Department of Engineering Mechanics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Nonlinear acoustic metamaterials (NAMs) exhibit extraordinary properties for low-frequency and broadband
Nonlinear metamaterials vibration mitigation. Despite the increasing attention received, exotic properties and the physical mechanisms
Nonlinear vibration underpinning NAM-enabled functionalities have not been fully understood. Moreover, investigations on the
Sound radiation
sound radiation of NAM structures have not been reported. Here we systematically investigate the vibration of a
Wave suppression
Plate
NAM plate and its sound radiation using experimental and theoretical methods. We experimentally demonstrate
that the NAM plate can entail significant vibration and sound radiation reduction in an ultra- low and broad
frequency band, typically from 20 to 1800 Hz, without any artificial damping element. This is attributed to the
nonlinear coupling among multiple local resonances, and the nonlinear collision-friction damping. This under­
standing allows the proposal of two design strategies to achieve ultra- low and broadband vibration and sound
radiation suppression with NAMs. Moreover, we clarify the mechanisms governing the ultra- low and broadband
features, including bandgaps, output saturation of nonlinear resonances, efficient energy pumping due to high-
order harmonics and chaos, and modulation of nonlinear resonance modal amplitudes and shapes. These
mechanisms and diverse wave behaviors are inter-related and occur concurrently. The reported study provides
answers to several key questions of paramount importance in designs, mechanics and applications of nonlinear
metamaterials.

1. Introduction Since about 2016 [11,23,24], nonlinear acoustic metamaterials

Metamaterials [1–3] are artificially architected materials that exhibit
properties which go beyond those of classical nature materials. Acoustic
metamaterials provide new impetus to study elastic wave dynamics [4,
5]. Properties of linear acoustic metamaterials, including the attenua­
tion of vibration and sound radiation within bandgaps, have been
extensively investigated [6–10]. Comparatively, studies on nonlinear
acoustic metamaterials (NAMs) are much less [11]. NAMs can trigger
many peculiar behaviors and open the door for creating excitingly new
wave dynamics [12,13], thus becoming the frontier of nonlinear phys­
ics. Early investigations focused on the nonlinear phononic crystal
models [14–16], including the mathematical Fermi-Pasta-Ulam models
[17,18] and granular crystals [19–22]. The subwavelength local reso­
nances are generally not considered in nonlinear phononic crystal
models [13].
(NAMs), with embedded nonlinear local resonators, have attracted vast
and increasing attention. A vital topic is the understanding of bandgaps
in NAMs and the way to use Bloch theorem. Many works reported the
amplitude-dependent bandgaps in NAMs by directly adopting the Bloch
theorem [23,25–30]. Recently, this property was studied in an NAM
with inertia amplification [30], with multiple nonlinear local resonators
[31] and plates [32]. However, Bloch theorem is essentially a linear
theory, thus its direct use to predict the bandgaps of NAM may lead to
large errors (even incorrect results). Recently, a new theoretical
framework, self-adaptive band structure and self-broadening bandgap
[33], was proposed and demonstrated for NAM with strong nonlinearity.
NAM [34,35] can induce nonreciprocal wave transmission [36], a
property that can hardly be achieved in linear materials without active
control. Recently, Li et al. [37] studied the three-dimensional nonre­
ciprocal transmission in a layered NAM. Moreover, based on NAM, a

* Corresponding authors at: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China.
E-mail addresses: xinfangdr@sina.com (X. Fang), li.cheng@polyu.edu.hk (L. Cheng).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmecsci.2022.107473
Received 14 June 2022; Received in revised form 19 June 2022; Accepted 20 June 2022
Available online 24 June 2022
0020-7403/© 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-
nc-nd/4.0/).
X. Fang et al. International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 228 (2022) 107473

Fig. 1. Model of the nonlinear elastic metamaterial plate. (a) NAM model consisting of 10 × 10 nonlinear resonators. The center point is taken as the origin of the
coordinates E (0, 0). The blue points represent periodic nonlinear resonators. (b) Real picture of the NAM plate, including an enlarged view of the coupled nonlinear
resonators consisting of three magnets and a rod. (c) Equivalent model of a resonator. Vibration at the center point E, the left-center (LC) point and right-upper (RU)
point will be measured synchronously by three laser vibrometers. More information about experiments, including pictures showing the experimental rigs and setups,
is shown in Fig. A5.

Fig. 2. Dispersion diagrams and vibration modes of linear metamaterial plate. (a, b) Dispersion diagrams. Panel (b) is plotted in the logarithmic scale to highlight the
low-frequency part. In (a), the discrete circle points are solved with the COMSOL FE model, and the smooth curves are the FE models established with the modal
superposition method in this paper. (c) Wave modes of a linear metacell calculated with COMSOL. These modes correspond to the red points shown in (b). LR0, LR-
slide, LR-rod1 and LR-rod2 denote four locally resonant modes, respectively. The last panel in (c) shows a typical coupling mode. There is a dashed curve in bandgap
LR-rod1 that corresponds to the local resonance in the other direction, LR-rod1-X or LR-rod1-Y. This bandgap still exists.

sub-wavelength, bidirectional elastic diode with frequency-preserved
nonreciprocity was experimentally demonstrated which shows prom­
ise for low frequency wave manipulation [38]. The harmonic generation
was also studied in different NAM models [26,28,39]. Undoubtedly,
there are many other interesting properties in NAMs [40], including the
collision enhanced hyper damping effect [41], frequency
down-conversion [42], wave self-interaction [43] and band degenera­
tion [44] etc. Researchers also investigated nonlinear acoustics prob­
lems in periodic structures [45], wave propagation in periodic bistable
structures [46–48] and periodic air bubbles in water [49] etc.
Among these properties, achieving ultralow-frequency and ultrab­
road band (double-ultra) wave attenuation has attracted much attention
[50,51]. The problem is of paramount importance for low-frequency and
broadband vibration and noise suppressions [52,53]. Our previous work
invented different NAMs and experimentally demonstrated the broad­
band vibration [28,50]. Recent experiments confirmed that the
double-ultra suppression can be realized with a small attachment [54].
Based on similar mechanism, this property has been extended to
piezoelectric metamaterials [55] in which nonlinearity arises from the
capacitors and inductors in an electrical shunt. The previous work [56]
mainly attributes the mechanisms for broadband vibration reduction in
NAM to “chaotic band” [23]. In fact, chaotic band is a general term.
Many factors might influence the chaotic effects, and chaotic responses
are always accompanied by other nonlinear processes, e.g., nonlinear
resonances and modes. Moreover, whether other nonlinear sources,
especially the nonlinear damping, can help improve the double-ultra
effect remains unknown. Therefore, the mechanisms and the proper­
ties that are required for achieving the double-ultra effect have not been
fully understood. Furthermore, possible acoustic benefit of NAM struc­
tures for sound radiation reduction has scarcely, if not completely, been
addressed in the literature. It can be surmised that these issues are
intimately tied with typical nonlinear process such as nonlinear reso­
nance, high-order harmonic generation and energy transfer. Therefore,
understanding these problems can help conceive new class of NAMs for
different scientific targets and engineering applications.
Motivated by the above, we adopt the NAM plate proposed in
Ref. [50] (see Fig. 1) to study its properties and mechanics for ultrabroad
suppression of both vibration and sound radiation. The work targets

2
X. Fang et al.
several objectives thus shows its novelty: (1) to propose a strongly
nonlinear metamaterial plate to entail significant vibration and sound
radiation reduction in an ultra- low and broad frequency band; and (2)
to elucidate the physical mechanisms underpinning the ultra-low and
broadband performance of the NAM plates; and (3) to understand the
interplay among them in order to establish general strategies and
analysis methods for complex nonlinear metamaterial plates. More
specifically, we establish a mechanical model of the NAM plate, which
leads to a high-dimensional nonlinear system. Experimental and theo­
retical analyses show multiple new features, including the attenuated
broadband sound radiation, nonlinear damping, coupling among mul­
tiple resonances, modulation of nonlinear modes, high-order harmonics
and energy pumping. The study provides answers to several key ques­
tions of paramount importance in both mechanics and applications of
NAM, and thus offers new impetus to innovative NAM designs which
may entail effective acoustic wave manipulations and vibration/noise
suppression.
This article is organized as follows. In Section 2, we describe the
configuration of the NAM plate and establish its mechanical model.
Before conducting a mechanism study, we briefly present experimental
evidences to show the ability of the NAM plate for suppressing ultralow
frequency and broadband vibration and sound radiation in Section 3.
The mechanisms underpinning the observed vibration and sound radi­
ation reduction are analyzed in Section 4. More numerical and addi­
tional experimental results are provided in Appendices.
2. Mechanics model of the NAM plate
2.1. Conceptual design of the NAM plate
Here we adopt the NAM plate reported in Ref. [50]. The differences
lie in the size of the plate and parameters of the magnets. As shown in
Fig. 1(a), the NAM consists of a square thin plate over which are
installed 10 × 10 periodic nonlinear resonators. The primary plate is
made of aluminum alloy. Its thickness h, density, elastic modulus, and
Poisson’s ratio are 1.9 mm, 2700 kg/m3, 67 GPa and 0.3, respectively.
The lattice constant is ax=ay=a = 80 mm. Each nonlinear resonator,
shown in Fig. 1(b, c), consists of three permanent magnets clustered
along a rod through the central holes of the magnets. The length of the
rod is ls=70 mm. The radius of the rod is rs=2 mm. The radius of the
central hole of the magnets is 2.5 mm. This creates a clearance δ=0.5
mm between the inner wall of the magnet and the rod when they are
coaxial. This clearance is vital to create the desired collision and friction
which subsequently contribute to the strongly nonlinear effects. The rod
is fixed to the thin plate at one end and free at the other. Magnet 1 is
attached to the plate, and magnet 3, identical to magnet 1, is fixed to the
rod with a fixator, with a distance lJ=42.5 mm away from the plate. The
total mass of magnet 3 and the fixator is mJ=8 g. An intermediate
magnet 2 (with a mass mr=10 g) is suspended between magnets 1 and 3
due to the repulsive force (not attractive force). The initial distance
between the surfaces of magnet 2 and 1 (or 3) is Δ0=10.5 mm. The
distance between the plate the barycenter of mr is lr=20 mm. Therefore,
magnet 2 can slide along the rod (see “LR-slide” in Fig. 2(c)). This
produces the “sliding” locally resonant (LR) mode in z axis (i.e., the
out-of-plane direction). Except for mass mr, the total mass of all other
parts of the resonator is 20 g. Other parameters of the resonator will be
explained in the theoretical below.
2.2. Model of the coupled nonlinear resonators
Understanding the mechanics of the aforementioned NAM plate re­
quires an accurate model of the nonlinear resonator. Undergoing
transverse motion, vibro-impact motion and flexural resonances in vi­
bration, the complex dynamics of the nonlinear resonator is modelled as
follows.
3
International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 228 (2022) 107473
(1) Transverse motion of magnet mr
Due to nonlinearity of the magnetic force, the “sliding” motion can
be modeled as a Duffing oscillator. The equations of sliding motion in
the ith metacell write:
⎧
⎨
̃
∼ = − k1 (̃ wri − w0i )3 m0 ẅ0i
wri − w0i ) − k1n (̃
⎩ mr w ri
= k1 (̃ wri − w0i )3 + F0i
wri − w0i ) + k1n (̃ (1)
Here m0 denotes the concentrated mass attached on the plate, which is
the total mass of the coupled resonators except for mr and the plate, here
m0=20 g; w ̃ ri and w0i denote the displacements perpendicular to the plate
plane of mr and m0, respectively; F0i is the interaction force from the
plate at the ith point, and it depends on w0i as well as the deflections of
the plate.; k1 and k1n are the linear and nonlinear stiffness coefficients of
the nonlinear magnetic force, respectively. As shown in Fig. A1 in Ap­
pendix A, we measure these coefficients, yielding k1=230 N/m and
k1n=1.4 × 107 N/m3. The effect from nonlinearity for specified vibration
amplitude A can be assessed with k1nA2/k1. A very large A, ~2 mm, is
needed to generate considerable nonlinearity, i.e. k1nA2/k1>0.2. Thus,
the magnetic nonlinearity is generally weak. Strong nonlinearity in this
metamaterial arises from the coupling between the vibro-impact motion
and the flexural motion of the rods. Denoting the relative sliding dis­
placementwri = w ̃ ri − w0i , Eq. (1) can be simplified as
⎧
⎪
⎪
( )
⎪
⎨ m0 ẅ0i + mr ẅri + ẅ0i = F0i
⎪
( ) (2)
⎪
⎪
⎪ mr ẅri + ẅ0i = − k1 wri − k1n w3ri
⎪
⎩
(2) Vibro-impact motion of mr
Mass mr undergoes vibration which is parallel to the plate (see panels
“LR-rod1” and “LR-rod2” in Fig. 2(c)), corresponding to a translational
resonance mode, LR0. This translational vibration is limited by the
clearance δ, thus generating vibro-impact that creates strong nonline­
arity. We can approximately model this vibro-impact oscillator as a
smooth system whose nonlinear force follows P(ur ) = kc ur + kcn unr ,
where ur denotes the relative displacement between mr and the rod in
the radial direction; kc denotes linear stiffness. Based on the following
experiments, kc=20 N/m. The nonlinear stiffness coefficient kcn depends
on the clearance, which can be evaluated by kcn≈αδ− n, where the odd
integer n is the order of nonlinearity [38] (see Fig. A2 for more details).
As shown in Fig. 1(b), due to the instability induced by a pair of
repulsive forces, magnet 2 and the rod are not always coaxial. As a
result, they contact at rest (i.e., the magnet is slant), so that the real
clearance is much smaller than 0.5 mm. This leads to much stronger
nonlinearity.
(3) Flexural resonances of the rod
Except for the sliding and translational motions of the intermediate
magnet 2, the rod with the mass mJ undergoes flexural vibration. The
vibro-impact motion of mr interacts with the flexural resonances of the
rod through the nonlinear force P(ur). Thus, nonlinearity is enhanced by
the flexural resonances. The first and the second-order flexural LR
modes, LR-rod1 and LR-rod2, are shown in Fig. 2(c). Ref. [54] equiva­
lents the first flexural resonance LR-rod1 to a 1DoF torsional oscillator
and neglects the high-order resonances. Here we adopt the modal su­
perposition approach to model the coupled resonators. The flexural
displacement of the rod writes
g(x, t) = gs (x, t) + xθ0 (t) = G1 (x)q1 (t) + G2 (x)q2 (t) + xθ0 (t) (3)
X. Fang et al.
in which x is the distance from point O; gs is the relative displacement;
θ0 denotes the rotation angle of the plate at point O; q1 and q2 are the
modal coordinates. Moreover, according to the flexural modes of
cantilever beam, the mode shape functions Gi(x) is expressed as
Gi (x) = cosβi x − coshβi x +
sinβi ls − sinhβi ls
(sinβi x − sinhβi x)
cosβi ls + coshβi ls
where β1ls=1.875, β2ls =4.694 for the first two modes. Considering the
coupling between the rod with mr and mJ, the total kinetic energy Tr and
potential energy Ur of the resonator are
∫
1 ls 1 1
Tr = ρ As (ġs + xθ̇0 )2 dx + mJ [ġs (lJ ) + lJ θ̇0 ]2 + mr [u̇r + ġs (lr ) + lr θ̇0 ]2
2 0 s 2 2
[ 2 ]2 [ 2 ]2
1 ∂ gs (lJ ) 1 ∂ gs (lr )
+ JJ
2 ∂x∂t
+ θ̇0 + Jr
2 ∂x∂t
+ θ̇0
∫ Mq̈ + Cq̇ + KL q + Kd q3 + Kc qn = F(t)
ls
1 1 1
Ur = ’’ 2
Es Is [g s (x, t)] dx + kc u2r + kcn un+1
r
2 0 2 n+1
Here ls, ρs, As, Es, and Is are the length, density, cross-sectional area,
elastic modulus and the second moment of area of the rod, respectively;
As=πrs2 , Is = πrs4 /4; JJ and Jr are the moment of inertia of the cylindrical
masses mJ and mr, respectively, andJi = mi (R2i /4 + h2i /12). In the
present case, the radius is R = 7.5 mm; h = 9 mm for mr, and h = 5 mm
for mJ, ρs=2700 kg/m3and Es=67 GPa. One can modulate the resonance
frequencies with rs, mJ or lJ. Moreover, Eq. (3) shows that the flexural
motion of the rod can interact with the flexural vibration of the plate
through θ0. Therefore, both LR-rod1 and LR-rod2 can generate
bandgaps.
(4) Resonator model
With the above components, one could establish the dynamic model
for the resonator. Due to symmetry, the above process does not distin­
guish the motion directions of the resonators. Taking the motion in xoz
plane as example, the generalized coordinate vector is qe=[θ0x, q1x, q2x,
urx]T. The equations of motion for the coupled resonators write
mer q̈e + ker qe + kec qne = f(t)
The elements of these matrices are given in Appendix B. As we have
used the relative displacement, the nonlinear term can be simplified as
kec qne . The motion in yoz plane is identical to that in xoz plane. There­
fore, the whole coupled resonator has seven degrees of freedom (DoFs),
[wr, q1x, q1y, q2x, q2y, urx, ury]. The resonances of this coupled resonator
produce different locally resonant (LR) bandgaps. For the primary plate,
we adopt the classical four-nodes element. Every node has three DoFs,
[w0, θ0x, θ0y]. Resonators are coupled to the plate through these
coordinates.
Moreover, when the NAM plate is not parallel to the ground, or the
plate is used in an environment with nonzero acceleration, the gravity
may influence the interacting force between the magnet mr and the rod,
which may affect the friction in the “sliding” motion. Such influences
can be considered by the nonlinear damping studied in Section 4.2.
2.3. Band structure of linear metamaterial plate
As a benchmark to facilitate subsequent analyses, the band structure
of the corresponding linear metamaterial plate is firstly investigated.
Based on Bloch theorem, we establish the FE model of a periodic met­
acell to calculate dispersive curves by only considering linear defor­
mation (see Appendix B.2). As shown in Fig. 2, the band structure of the
linear metamaterial plate solved with the proposed FE model in Eq. (7)
and the solid FE model in COMSOL are consistent, which confirms that
International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 228 (2022) 107473
our model is accurate enough to analyze the properties. Phenomenon-
wise, the metamaterial plate has four LR modes below 2000 Hz: LR0,
LR-slide, LR-rod1, and LR-rod2 (see Fig. 2(c)). In the present case, LR0
appears at 7.1 Hz (see Fig. 2(b)). Though LR0 does not open a bandgap,
it is important for generating the nonlinear coupling between three
(4) resonance modes. LR-slide opens a very narrow LR bandgap in
24.13–26.26 Hz. LR-rod1 and LR-rod2 open bandgaps in 243–251 Hz,
1715–1893 Hz, respectively. The Bragg bandgap is not opened in all
directions as the mass of m0 is not large enough (see Fig. A4). For m0=20
g, it is open in ΓX and MΓ directions in 506–777 Hz and 760–1185 Hz,
respectively.
2.4. Nonlinear finite element model of the NAM plate
With the resonator model, we establish the nonlinear FE model for
the whole NAM plate as
(5)
(8)
(6)
Here M, C, KL are mass, damping and linear stiffness matrices; Kd and Kc
are matrices of nonlinear stiffness coefficients; Kd and Kc depend on the
Duffing oscillator and vibro-impact oscillator, respectively; F(t)=Fsinωt
is the force vector. In simulation and experiments, a driving force
F0sinωt is applied at the center point E on the plate (see Fig. 1(a)). The
linear damping is modeled as the proportional damping,
C = d0 KL / ω (9)
where d0 denotes the linear damping coefficient that is determined by
experiments. A model for nonlinear damping is established in Section
4.2. The NAM plate is immersed in air, considered as a light fluid
involving weak vibroacoustic coupling. Therefore, the feedback influ­
ence of the emitted sound on plate vibration is neglected. Moreover,
geometrical nonlinearity has negligible effect on the properties of the
NAM plate. Every metacell is meshed into 2 × 2 identical elements.
Thus, the entire NAM plate has 2023 DoFs, a very high-dimensional and
strongly nonlinear system. For comparisons, we establish another
nonlinear FE model that considers only the first-order resonance of the
rod. In this model, Eq. (3) retreats tog(x, t)=G1(x)q1(t) + xθ0(t). For the
corresponding linear system, k1n=0, kcn=0.
(7) We adopt the harmonic balance method to calculate the frequency
response of the system. As shown in the experimental spectra in Fig. 6,
the third harmonic is obvious, which is typical in our system. Thus, the
third harmonic is taken into consideration to show the properties of
high-order harmonics. The solution is assumed as
q = a1 sinωt + a2 cosωt + b1 sin3ωt + b2 cos3ωt (10)
Using the harmonic balance process, one obtains the following set of
algebraic equations.
⎧[ ]
⎪
⎪ KL − ω2 M]a1 − ωCa2 + Kd α1 + Kc β1 = F
⎨[
2
[KL − ω M a]2 + ωCa1 + Kd α2 + Kc β2 = 0
(11)
2
⎪
⎪ K L − 9ω M ]b1 − 3ωCb2 + Kd α3 + Kc β3 = 0
⎩[
KL − 9ω2 M b2 + 3ωCb1 + Kd α4 + Kc β4 = 0
The vectors αi and βi for n = 3 and n = 5 are listed in Appendix B.
Now we clarify the order n for nonlinearity. Based on the experiments
below, we determine that the stiffness constant is kcn=1 × 1014 N/m3 for
the cubic nonlinearity. As shown in Fig. A2, the numerical results for n
= 3 and n = 5 are basically the same, suggesting that a model based on
even high-order nonlinearity does not fundamentally change the general
nonlinear process and mechanisms. Thus, we use the cubic term in this
paper for generality. The first and third-order responses are
√̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅ √̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
A1 = a21 + a22 , A3 = b21 + b22 (12)
We adopt Newton iteration to find solution of Eq. (11). In the iter­
ation, an initial value v0 of the vector v ¼ [a1;a2;b1;b2] is required. Two
4
X. Fang et al. International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 228 (2022) 107473

confirmed, the general results are not influenced by the boundary con­
ditions. This is to be discussed later. As far as the modeling is concerned,
here we establish the integration method to calculate the sound radia­
tion of the baffled plate, as shown in Fig. 3. One may adopt the full finite
element methods or other methods in Refs. [57,58] to establish the
model for the unbaffled NAM plate.
The coordinate origin O is set at the plate center. According to the
Rayleigh integral, the sound pressure at point M (xM, yM, zM) is calcu­
lated by
∫ L/2 ∫ L/2 ( )
ωρ0
p(M) = i va x, y ei(ωt− kLM ) dxdy (13)
− L/2 − L/2 2π LM

Here the air density is ρ0=1.29 kg/m3; va(x,y) is the vibration velocity at
point P; LM is the distance between P and M, LM=|(xM-x), (yM-y), zM|.
When putting M on the yoz plane, according to the coordinate shown in
Fig. 3,
2
LM = r2 + R2 − 2rRsinθcosφ (14)

We calculate the radiated sound pressure by using the displacement

field obtained from the solution of Eq. (11). To increase the computa­
tional accuracy, we adopt the interpolation method to smooth the vi­
bration displacement fields, which gives 8 × 8 square grids in every
Fig. 3. Model for calculating sound radiation of the NAM plate. The plate is
metacell. The first-order and third-order average vibration velocities of a
shown by the area shadowed by green color. The original coordinate center
grid are
point O locates at the center of the plate.
{
va1 = ω(w1 + w2 + w3 + w4 )/4
(15)
options are available for imposing v0. (1) Specifying v0=0. (2) Using va3 = 3ω(w1 + w2 + w3 + w4 )/4
continuation method (see Appendix B.3). The first approach is efficient
but may lead to non-convergent results for some parameters. The Here w1~w4 are the out-of-plane displacements of the four nodes of a
continuation method can provide convergent result and find bi­ grid. Then, based on Eq. (13), one can adopt the discrete method to get
furcations, with however reduced efficiency for the current high- the sound pressures of fundamental and third harmonics, p1 and p3.
dimensional system. The two approaches are used in different situations. ∑∑ iωρ0
( )
p1 = va1 xm , yn eikLM (xm ,yn ) lm ln (16)
2πLM (xm , yn )
2.5. Sound radiation model
m n

∑∑ ( )
i3ωρ0
To determine the general properties and mechanisms of the sound p3 = va3 xm , yn ei3kLM (xm ,yn ) lm ln (17)
2πLM (xm , yn )
radiation of a NAM plate, we measured the sound radiation of the NAM m n

plate under both baffled and unbaffled conditions. As experimentally

Fig. 4. Linear vibration transmissions Ti=20log10(vi/vE) at (a) LC and (b) RU points under small input. The input signal is white noise. The theoretical transmission is
solved with d0=0.005 in Eq. (9). The responses in 100–400 Hz are highlighted in the right panels.

5
X. Fang et al.
Fig. 5. Phenomena of ultralow and ultrabroad band wave reduction of the
NAM plate under white-noise input. (a, b) Acceleration transmission
Ta=20log10(ai/aE,av) at LC and RU points. (c) Generalized sound pressure Hp=
20log10(p/pref/F0av) in unbaffled condition. Amplitude increases from level 1 to
level 4, with the minimal level 1 being deemed as the linear state, while level 4
forcing the NAM into strongly nonlinear state.
in which lm and ln denote the size of the (m, n)th grid.
For a given excitation force F0, we define the generalized radiation
sound pressure as
p1
Hp1 = 20log10 (dB) (18)
pref F0
The reference sound pressure is pref = 20 uPa. Hp1 allows for the
evaluation of the sound radiation efficiency. For linear model, Hp1 is
independent of F0.
2.6. Model validation
To validate the FE model, we study the vibration transmission
Ti=20log10(vi/vE) at the left-center (LC) and right-upper (RU) points on
the metamaterial plate under linear state, i=LC, RU. In experiment, this
is obtained by imposing a small input. The experimental methods are
detailed in Appendix D. As shown in Fig. 4, the transmission spectra of
our FE model are consistent with experimental results below 1200 Hz,
including the peaks and valleys. Moreover, the two LR bandgaps
induced by the flexural resonances of rod, LR-rod1 and LR-rod2, are also
precisely reproduced in experiments. Therefore, the FE model properly
represents the transmission properties of the plate, despite some dif­
ferences, which arise from the estimation of parameters and nonlinearity
in experiment. The “LR-slide” bandgap is not obvious in experiment
because its bandwidth 24.13–26.26 Hz is so narrow that is easily
influenced by damping. Moreover, by comparing the linear FEA trans­
mission (with different d0) with the experimental transmission under
small input (see Fig. 4), we determine the linear damping coefficient in
Eq. (9) as d0≈0.005 N⋅s/m in experiment.
3. Experimental confirmation of the broadband reduction of
vibration and sound radiation
Before systematically investigate the underlying physical mecha­
nisms, this section briefly shows experimental results, in particular the
phenomena of wave reduction. To this end, we carried out experiments
under both baffled and unbaffled boundary conditions with broadband
and typical monochromous excitations. For the sake of briefness, we put
6
International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 228 (2022) 107473
most experimental details in Appendix D so that the main text can focus
on the major observation and the corresponding analyses.
Experimental setups used for measurement are shown in Fig. A5. The
vibration velocities at excitation point E, the left-center (LC) and the
right-upper (RU) points perpendicular to the plate plane, vLC, vRU, vE, are
synchronously measured by three laser vibrometers. A microphone is
installed along the central axle of the plate to measure its sound radia­
tion pressure p. As demonstrated in Fig. A3, the vibration captured at LC
and RU points represent the predominant vibration properties of the
plate, while the average vibration of the entire plate vav can present the
vibration in the Bragg bandgap clearer. The acceleration transmission
Ta=20log10(ai/aE,av) and the generalized sound pressure Hp=20log10(p/
prefF0av) are obtained to show the wave energy reduction effects induced
by enhancing nonlinearity (i.e., increasing excitation amplitude). Here
ai denotes acceleration signal at point i; aE,av is the average acceleration
at point E in 0–2000 Hz; F0av is the average force in 0–2000 Hz and its
unit is N. It goes without saying that Hp is independent of F0 in linear
structures.
The experimental results under unbaffled condition and white-noise
input are shown in Fig. 5, and that under monochromatic excitation are
shown in Fig. 7. Comparing Fig. 5 to Fig. A8, and Fig. 7 to Fig. A9, one
can see that the general phenomena in terms of vibration, sound
reduction, energy pumping and amplitude-dependent properties are
basically the same for the baffled and unbaffled plates, despite some
frequency dependent differences. Here we choose the unbaffled case for
detailed examination, which is free from the influence of the boundary
damping.
3.1. Broadband reduction of vibration and sound radiation
First, we show the broadband reduction of vibration and sound ra­
diation of the NAM plates under white-noise excitation, as shown in
Fig. 5. The lowest excitation level 1 is regarded as the benchmark linear
state, and level 4 can drive the NAM into strongly nonlinear state. For
the linear metamaterial, only the bandgaps can suppress vibration and
sound radiation, and this happens in the current case in the narrow
bandgaps LR-rod1 (210–245 Hz), LR-rod2 near 1600 Hz. In the broader
range near 700 Hz, the vibration amplitudes at LR and RU points remain
high but the sound radiation of the whole plate is also attenuated rela­
tive to neighbor bands. Detail analyses of the average amplitude in
Figs. A4 and 9 suggest that the Bragg bandgap in ΓX direction (see Fig. 2)
can also lead to vibration reduction of the whole plate to certain extent.
Therefore, the reduction of the sound radiation near 700 Hz is induced
by the Bragg bandgap. This will further be demonstrated theoretically in
Fig. 10. Existing literature has reported an efficient sound radiation
reduction induced by the bandgaps in linear metamaterial plates [8,59].
We mainly focus on the broadband and efficient vibration and sound
reduction in passbands owing to strong nonlinearity.
Interestingly, from linear to strongly nonlinear states (level 1 to 4),
the response peaks within 30–1700 Hz are reduced by about 20 dB,
demonstrating the ultralow, ultrabroad and highly efficient vibration
reduction effect. At points LR or RU, the responses near some fre­
quencies (e.g., near 400 Hz) can be reduced by as much as 35 dB without
bandgaps. Meanwhile, the broadband sound radiation can be reduced by
about 15 dB at peaks (see Fig. 5(c)). For the baffled NAM plate (Fig. A8),
the sound pressure peaks can also be reduced by 10–20 dB in 100–1700
Hz by modulating the NAM from linear to strongly nonlinear states,
which is fully consistent with the unbaffled plate.
3.2. Properties of harmonic generation and energy pumping
To understand the process underpinning the observed wave sup­
pression, and to present the phenomena of harmonic generation and
energy pumping more clearly, we study the vibration and sound radia­
tion at different monochromatic excitation levels, as illustrated in Figs. 7
and A9. Here we briefly describe the main phenomena which will be
X. Fang et al. International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 228 (2022) 107473

Fig. 6. Typical frequency spectra of radiated sound pressure under four
different levels of monochromatic excitation. The first and the second panels
are for f0=155 Hz, and 345 Hz, respectively. The sound pressure level is defined
as 20log10(p/pref) (dB).
recalled when analyzing the mechanisms in the next section. Four
representative frequencies (f0=88.75, 155, 345, and 1430 Hz) near the
resonant frequencies in the passbands are picked as examples, and their
positions are labeled in Fig. 5. The frequencies within the bandgaps are
not chosen because bandgaps can of course suppress the vibration and
transmission of metamaterial plate [60]. Refs. [50,56] have shown a
jumping behavior of wave propagation in bandgaps of nonlinear meta­
materials. Here we pay attention to the properties and mechanisms in
the ultralow and ultrabroad frequency band, especially the passbands.
As shown in Fig. 6, the NAM plate radiates sound with many high-
order harmonics (2f0, 3f0, 4f0, 5f0 …) that lead to efficient energy
transfer. Although the vibro-impact oscillator is simplified as a cubic
nonlinear system in theory, even-order harmonics can still be generated
in practice. Moreover, those harmonics become more prominent for
larger energy input level. For example, the spectra at f0=155 Hz under
large excitation levels become even smoother.
The mobility Ti=vi/F0 (another vibration transmission indicator)
depends naturally on the position of the measuring point, LC and RU.
The variation of TLC and TRU in Fig. 7(a1–a4) indicates that there is a
critical excitation level F0cr for each frequency, under which a slight
increase in F0 can greatly reduce the vibration transmission and the
sound radiation. A small F0cr value for low frequencies signifies strong
nonlinearity in this NAM. The reduction of Ti reaches about 14 to 26 dB.
When F0>F0cr, the mobility almost remains constant at first, and then
slowly increases when further increasing F0. This trend indicates a
highly robust broadband reduction effect.
The normalized sound pressure of the fundamental wave Hp1=
20log10(p1/pref/F0) (dB) can characterize the efficiency and the capa­
bility of the sound radiation, as shown on the right axis in Fig. 7(a1–a4)
(the red curves). Different from the mobility, Hp1 features an overall
descending trend with increasing F0, with particularly an accelerating
reduction speed when F0<F0cr. Hp1 can be reduced by 10, 16, 24, 11 dB
for the four frequencies, respectively. This confirms again the broadband
and highly efficient feature of the NAM plate in terms of vibration and
sound radiation reduction.
As shown in Fig. 7(b1–b4) (the left and right axes), the ratios p3/p1
and pav/p1 characterize the properties of high-order harmonic genera­
tion. Here pav denotes the average sound pressure in 2.5f0–2000 Hz. One
can see the ratio v3/v1 in Fig. A7. As expected, p3/p1 is small when F0→0.
Importantly, p3/p1 always peaks near F0cr, and the peak value reaches
0.8 (80%), indicating highly efficient harmonic generation. After the
peak, p3/p1 drops when F0 further increases. This is a typical trend for
individual high-order harmonics. However, this only means that the 3,
4, 5th harmonics (individual components) become smaller. If we
observe the average sound pressure in high frequency ranges, pav/p1
increases with F0 overall because the responses become chaotic [56].
Moreover, as the entire sound radiation is dominated by p1, the increase
of pav/p1 does not mean an increase of noise radiation because Hp1 de­
creases rapidly with F0. These phenomena will be confirmed in the
following analytical studies.
4. Mechanisms for vibration and sound reduction
The properties of chaotic responses in NAMs have been studied in
Ref. [56]. Here, we investigate the mechanisms for broadband and
highly efficient vibration and sound reduction form different perspec­
tives based on the coupling between resonances, source of nonlinearity,
nonlinear resonance, energy pumping and modal modulation.

Fig. 7. Properties of vibration and sound suppression under monochromatic excitation. There are 2 × 4 panels. Four columns (numbered 1–4) correspond to
f0=88.75, 155, 345 and 1430 Hz. Two rows represent three types of properties. (a1-a4) Vibration mobility Ti=vi/F0 and the normalized sound pressure from the plate
radiation Hp1= 20log10(p1/prefF0) (dB). Note that Hp1 is drawn on the right axis with red curves on each panel. The curve types for TLC, TRU, and Hp1 in the four panel
are identical. (b1-b4) Ratios p3/p1 and pav/p1 used to characterize harmonic generation and energy pumping. Here pav/p1 is draw on the right axis with red curve. For
f0=1430 Hz, p3/p1 is not analyzed because 3f0=4290 Hz exceeds the investigation scope, and pav denotes the average value in 1200–1600 Hz in this case.

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X. Fang et al. International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 228 (2022) 107473

could control the suppression efficiency and the bandwidth by changing

the frequency separation between local resonances. This effect is
referred to as Bridged Coupling. Our NAM plate is also designed with the
bridged coupling concept. However, only two resonances are considered
in previous works [50,54]. Here we will demonstrate that this is not
sufficient to explain the vibration suppression above LR-rod1.
Except for the sliding mode LR-slide, the remaining three local res­
onances, LR0, LR-rod1 and LR-rod2, are relevant to the flexural vibra­
tion of the rod. Both LR-rod1 and LR-rod2 couple with LR0. To
understand their interaction due to nonlinearity, we solve Eq. (7) (the
= 0.
equations of motion of local resonators) by specifying f(t)=0 and θ0 ∕
In this case, Eq.(7) is transformed as
⎡ ⎤
⎡ ⎤ ⎡ ⎤⎡ ⎤
me22 me23 me24 ⎢ q̈1 ⎥ ke22 ke23 0 q1
⎣ me33 me34 ⎦⎢ ⎥ ⎣ ⎦⎣ q2 ⎦
⎣ q̈2 ⎦ + ke23 me33 0
sym mr ür 0 0 kc ur
⎡ ⎤⎡ ⎤3
0 0 0 q1
Fig. 8. Bridged coupling among three local resonances. The nonlinear curves + ⎣ 0 0 0 ⎦⎣ q2 ⎦
are solved with θ0=1 × 10− 5 rad, kc=1 × 1014 N/m3. (a) ur/θ0. Here the right 0 0 kcn ur
⎡ ⎤
panel shows the low-frequency part on a logarithm scale. (b) g/θ0. Here g de­ me12
notes g(x=ls). The right panel is a locally enlarged view. In (a, b), the thick gray = − ⎣ me13 ⎦θ̈0 (19)
curves are the results for linear system. (c) The limit linear system for kc→+∞. me14

The matrix elements are listed in Appendix B. Then, one can use the
4.1. Bridged coupling among three local resonances
first-order harmonic balance method to solve q1, q2 and ur. g(x)=g1(x)
q1+g2(x)q2. The results are illustrated in Fig. 8(a, b). fLR0, frod1, frod2 are
As previously demonstrated [61], the coupling between local reso­
three linear resonance frequencies for the three LR modes: LR0, LR-rod1,
nances is essential for broadband vibration suppression in NAMs. One

Fig. 9. Numerical vibration responses of the NAM plate using different models. (a) FE model neglecting LR-rod2. (b) FE model considering LR-rod2. In calculation,
F0=10 N for f<450 Hz; F0=50 N for f>450 Hz. (c) Results with F0=100 N for the FE model considering LR-rod2. The curve legends in (b, c) are identical. In the case
considering the nonlinear damping, dc=2 N s2/m2 and the solution is found with the iteration method with v0=0. (d) Average value of ur in linear case. The dashed
box in (d) shows the inert band. In (a, b, c), vav denotes the average velocity of the plate. ur,av in (d) is the average displacement of ur in the 100 resonators. (e)
Vibration mode of a periodic metacell at 470 Hz inside the inert band.

8
X. Fang et al.
Fig. 10. Numerically calculated sound radiation at 2 m solved with methods in
Section 2.5. dc=2 N s2/m2. Other parameters in calculation are identical with
Fig. 9(d). P1 and P3 are the fundamental and third harmonics in sound pressure
in nonlinear case, respectively.
and LR-rod2, respectively. Moreover, to certain extent, the nonlinear
force (kc +kcn u2r )ur presents a “linear” oscillator whose stiffness kc +kcn u2r
increases with amplitude. Therefore, one can observe the limit case by
imposing kc→+∞ in linear system, as shown in Fig. 8(c). frod1 limit
=270 Hz
and frod2 =1400 Hz are the resonance frequencies of flexural vibration in
limit
this limit case. In nonlinear case, every resonance peak bends to the right
until reaching two peaks just right atfrod1 limit
and frod2
limit
, which means
nonlinearity in LR0 mode changes the properties of modes LR-rod1 and
LR-rod2. This stems from the bridged coupling among three local reso­
nances. Moreover, a noticeable feature is that ur/θ0 in Fig. 8(a) drops in a
valley (ur/θ0→0) near 400 Hz due to the anti-resonance, which means
that the magnet mr weakly interacts with the rod near 400 Hz (i.e., the
vibro-impact motion cannot happen). To distinguish the anti-resonances
of the whole plate, we name it as anti-local-resonance.
To show the influences of such coupling phenomenon more clearly,
we compare the vibration responses obtained from the two FE models
that consider or neglect the mode LR-rod2. The responses under
different levels of F0 are calculated. The linear responses show that LR-
rod2 alters the dynamics mainly above 1200 Hz. Experimental results in
Figs. 5, 7(a4) and A8 demonstrate that the wave suppression effect is
persistent up to 1500 Hz. However, as shown in Fig. 9(a), the FE model
neglecting LR-rod2 predicts vibration suppression mainly in 20–76 Hz,
159–325 Hz, and 810–1150 Hz. These ranges cannot cover the entire
band observed in experiment, especially at high frequencies. When LR-
rod2 is considered, as shown in Fig. 9(b), besides the bandgap LR-rod2,
the suppression effect in 20–335 Hz is improved, alongside a significant
reduction of the resonances in 620–1660 Hz. This is consistent with the
experiment result. Therefore, the bridged coupling among the three
resonances plays a paramount role in achieving ultra-broadband vi­
bration suppression.
To show the reduction of sound radiation in theory, we calculate the
spectra of the radiated sound pressure in both linear and nonlinear cases,
as shown in Fig. 10. The peaks of the emitted sound are identical with
the peaks of average vibration amplitude vav/F0 shown in Fig. 9(b).
Except for those peaks, the efficiency of the sound radiation increases
Fig. 11. Vibration mobility vav1/F0 changes with F0 for 148, 324.5 and 363 Hz. The influence of the nonlinear damping coefficient dc is studied here.
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International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 228 (2022) 107473
with frequency range up to 450 Hz. Under specific forcing level, the
efficiency of sound radiation in 800–1700 Hz remains high. Moreover,
besides the bandgaps LR-rod1 and LR-rod2, the emitted sound pressure
near 600–800 Hz (the directional Bragg bandgap) also becomes lower
than the one in its neighboring bands. These ranges can explain the
mechanisms for the valley values near 250, 800, and 1300 Hz in
experimental spectra in Figs. 5 and A8. For the NAM plate, the total
sound pressure is dominated by the fundamental wave component in
most frequency ranges. As the broadband vibration is reduced, the
sound radiation at resonance peaks is also significantly attenuated.
Meanwhile, we notice an inert band, 350–560 Hz, which is not
sensitive to the nonlinear stiffness. Even for a very large input amplitude
(see Fig. 9(c) the red curve), the vibration is marginally suppressed,
which does not agree with the experiment results. The average value of
ur in Fig. 9(d) indicates that this inert band appears because ur becomes
so tiny (1 × 10− 8 m) that nonlinearity, quantified by kc ur + kcn u3r , be­
comes negligible. As shown in Fig. 8(a), one reason for the tiny ur is that
the anti-local-resonance happens in this frequency range, so that the
flexural motion of the primary plate cannot efficiently communicate
with the rods to generate large enough flexural deformation on rods.
Moreover, we analyze the vibration/wave mode of a periodic metacell in
this range, as shown in Fig. 9(e). The mode shape is symmetric featuring
θ0→0 at the center point, which also leads to small bending deformation
of the rods. In this motion, the magnet mr slides along the rod, thus
generating tiny collision nonlinearity in the inert band. The Bragg
bandgap in ΓX direction partly overlaps with the inert band. As shown in
Fig. 9(a, b) and furtherly analyzed in Fig. A4, this directional Bragg
bandgap can reduce the valley value of the average amplitude in a
certain extent, but it cannot significantly reduce the resonant peaks in
this finite structure.
4.2. Nonlinear damping
The experiment results suggest that there must be other nonlinear
factors that lead to the attenuation of the vibration and sound in this
inert band. We find that this important source is the nonlinear damping
[62]. In the ideal vibration mode in Fig. 9(e), if the magnet mr were
always coaxial with the rod and the clearance always remained nonzero,
no friction would be produced between mr and the rod. However, in
practice, the magnet is oblique and contacts with the rod at rest, and the
rod can still undergo small flexural vibration. Therefore,
collision-friction is produced on mr (also termed as rub-impact process).
This brings nonlinear damping that can greatly impact on the vibration.
Detailed mechanisms for the collision-friction damping are in the realm
of tribology. This paper focuses on the effect of this nonlinear damping.
It can be modeled as a quadratic force of velocity, dc|v|v, where dc de­
notes the collision-friction damping coefficient. With this model, the
equations of transversal motion of mr write
X. Fang et al. International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 228 (2022) 107473

Fig. 12. Theoretical solution in 305–400 Hz found with continuation approach used to show the effect of nonlinear damping. Here F0=50 N, dc=10 N s2/m2. (a, b, c)
Mobilities vLC/F0, vRU/F0, and vav1/F0 of fundamental wave. (d) Generalized sound pressure of fundamental wave and third harmonic.

Fig. 13. Nonlinear resonances in two frequency ranges. The solutions are obtained using continuation method. dc=10 N s2/m2. (a, d) Experimental results of the
generalized acceleration at RU points. (b, c) Frequency responses in 120–180 Hz for two cases F0=1 N, and F0=10 N. (e, f) Frequency responses in 800–1000 Hz for
F0=10 N. Here the blue curves are the results from the nonlinear model. Many branches of nonlinear resonances are found. F0=10 N only represents moderate
nonlinearity in 800–1000 Hz. The responses under strong nonlinearity are shown in Fig. 9(b). (g, h) Linear and nonlinear vibration modes at 141 Hz and F0=10 N
picked from the valley frequency on the nonlinear curve in panel (b). The value 20log10(|w1|/F0) is shown here.

⎧
⎪
⎪
( ) The matrix Cc is composed of coefficient dc like Kc. A possible way to
⎪
⎪
⎨ m0 ẅ0i + mr ẅri + ẅ0i = F0i solve Eq. (21) is to equate the nonlinear damping to a linear one,
( ) (20)
⎪
⎪
⎪ mr ẅri + ẅ0i = − k1 wri − dc |ẇri |ẇri − k1n w3ri dceq = dc |ẇri | ≈ ωdc |wri | (22)
⎪
⎩
Then, one can solve Eq. (21) with harmonic balance methods similar to
Then, the FE model of the whole plate becomes Eq. (11). For a given dc, two approaches are adopted to determine dceq
using an iteration process: (1) Specify v0=0 as the initial value of the
Mq̈ + Cq̇ + Cc |q̇|q̇ + KL q + Kd q3 + Kc qn = F(t) (21) vector q; (2) Use the continuation approach (see Appendix B.2 for more

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X. Fang et al. International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 228 (2022) 107473

Fig. 14. Responses at 148 Hz to show the output saturation of nonlinear resonance and energy pumping. Here the nonlinear damping is negligible, dc=0. (a1)
Displacements at RU point sRU1 and (a2) average displacement sav1 for fundamental waves vary with input force F0. (a3, a4) Vibration transmissions. There is an
unusual valley point on the curve labeled by a pentagram. (b1) Linear mode at f1. (b2) Linear mode at 3f1 (not the third-harmonic nonlinear mode). (c1-c3) and (d1-
d3) The modes of fundamental wave and third harmonic at three typical points. The three points are shown in (a4). (c1-c3) and (d1-d3) show the modulation of
nonlinear resonance modes.

Fig. 15. Responses at 324.5 Hz to show the

modulation of nonlinear resonance and energy
pumping. dc=10 N s2/m2. (a) Vibration
mobility (transmission) varies with input force
F0 from 0 to 30 N. (b) Efficiency of sound ra­
diation. (c) Ratio between third and funda­
mental harmonics for vibration and sound
pressure. (d1-d4) Modes of fundamental wave,
(e1-e4) Modes for the third harmonic. (d1, e1)
for linear case. (d2-d4, e2-e4) for nonlinear
cases with F0=1, 14 and 30 N, respectively.
Color bars of (d1-d4 and e1) are identical, from
− 70 to − 35 dB. Color bars for (e2-e4) are
identical, from − 100 to − 70 dB.

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X. Fang et al. International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 228 (2022) 107473

Fig. 16. Properties of frequency shifting. (a) A typical resonance for linear case and nonlinear cases for F0=10 N and 50 N. (b) Local resonance frequencies vary with
the stiffness kc. The black straight oblique line denotes f = (kc/mr)1/2/2/π. (c) Response spectra of linear metamaterial with different kc.

The three frequencies chosen in Fig. 11 are resonance frequencies.

Fig. A1. Repulsive force between magnets. The function aΔ+bΔ3 is used to fit
the experimental result.
details). The solution in Fig. 9(b,c) and Fig. 10 for dc= 2 N s2/m2 is
solved with the first approach. Solutions in Figs. 11 and 12 are obtained
with the continuation approach.
As shown in Figs. 9(b, c) and 10, with the consideration of nonlinear
damping, the theoretical trend now becomes highly consistent with
experiments, and the nonlinear damping indeed exerts greater effect in
the inert band. Therefore, the nonlinear damping is also important for
broadband vibration and sound suppression of the NAM plate. This is
further confirmed in Figs. 11 and 12.
vav1 denotes the average velocity of the fundamental wave of the whole
plate (the third-harmonic amplitude is not added in vav1). For 363 Hz,
although the case with dc=0 can present the vibration reduction effect
for F0>8 N, the vibration mobility vav1/F0 remains constant for F0<8 N,
which does not agree with experiments in Fig. 7(a1-a4). If dc=10 N s2/
m2, vav1/F0 reduces by 3.5 times when increasing F0 from 0 to 25 N. This
is consistent with the experimental trend in Fig. 7(a1-a4). The two cases
dc=10 and 30 N s2/m2 at 324.5 Hz in Fig. 11 manifest that the nonlinear
damping has greater effect for small input amplitude; and the nonlinear
stiffness kc ur + kcn u3r plays a dominant role for large input. At 148 Hz,
solutions for dc=0 and dc=10 are convergent, suggesting that the
nonlinear damping has little influence near 148 Hz because of the
dominant role played by the nonlinear stiffness.
Meanwhile, as shown in Fig. 12, we solve the frequency response in
305–400 Hz for F0=50 N and dc=10 N s2/m2. The theoretical properties
are consistent with experiments in Fig. 5. Again, the theoretical results at
363 Hz and 324.5 Hz for dc=10 N s2/m2 also agree with the experi­
mental results for 345 Hz in Fig. 7(a3). Therefore, the NAM plate fea­
tures a nonlinear damping coefficient dc≈10 N s2/m2. Moreover, as
shown in Figs. 12(d) and 10, the radiated sound pressure of the funda­
mental wave p1 follows the average vibration amplitude vav1/F0, but the
third harmonic sound p3 features different pattern with p1. This sound

Fig. A2. Influence of the order of nonlinearity. (a) Force-displacement curves P(ur). (b) Vibration transmission of the NAM plate solved with finite element methods
under F0=50 N.

12
X. Fang et al.
Fig. A3. Linear vibration responses of the metamaterial plate solved with FE
model. “Average” denotes the average displacement at 21 × 21 meshing points.
radiation property is further confirmed in other frequency ranges in
Fig. 13.
At last, the experimental results in Figs. 5 and A5 show that those
neighboring resonances merge under strong nonlinearity, especially the
transmission at RU point. The peaks of “resonances” then become
blurred. Theoretical results in Fig. 12 can explain the merging reso­
nances. As the amplitude is greatly reduced, the curve becomes so
smooth that many peaks at local points (e.g., 360 Hz for vRU/F0)
disappear. Thus, one can hardly distinguish resonant peaks from the
curve any more.
The nonlinear damping and bridged coupling among three local
resonances have provided answers to the origin of nonlinearity which
warrants the broadband vibration and sound suppression. However, the
achieved suppression under each frequency depends on the nonlinear
resonances. The nonlinear resonances of NAM plate involve three
important features: output saturation, modulation of nonlinear resonant
modes and energy pumping. These features will be investigated in the
subsequent sections.
Fig. A4. Influences of Bragg bandgaps on vibration reduction. F0=5 N in simulation. (a, c, e) Dispersion diagram. (b, d, f) Average vibration velocity Vav of the whole
plate. (a, b) m0=10 g. (c, d) m0=20 g. (e, f) m0=30 g. The shading ranges in (b, d, f) are the bands for the Bragg bandgap in ΓX direction.
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International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 228 (2022) 107473
4.3. Output saturation of nonlinear resonances
The nonlinear resonant response of the NAM plate is limited in
practice. To show this, we calculate the responses of nonlinear reso­
nances in 125–180 Hz and 800–1000 Hz under different amplitude F0, as
shown in Fig. 13. The responses in 800–1200 Hz under moderate
nonlinearity present the bifurcation of nonlinear resonances. One can
find many more branches in this frequency range. Apart from the saddle-
node bifurcation, some branches cross or fold, which leads to complex
bifurcations due to the high system dimensions. Relative to linear res­
onances, the vibration amplitudes of the nonlinear plate are significantly
limited by those branches. Results in 120–180 Hz present the merged
nonlinear resonances under strong nonlinearity, again. The theoretical
curve in Fig. 13(b) is consistent with experiments in Fig. 13(a). Here, we
observe a new phenomenon in that the transmission curves at some
frequency ranges (e.g., Fig. 13(b)) drop in a valley instead of reaching a
peak. This phenomenon also appears in experiment (see the red curve
near 141 Hz in Fig. 13(a)). This is due to the amplitude-dependent
response presented in Fig. 14.
We pick up a typical resonance at 148 Hz to show the mechanisms for
limiting amplitude, as shown in Fig. 14. First, we examine the input-
output (F0-s) and input-transmission (F0-s/F0) curves in Fig. 14(a1-a4).
For linear system, the input-output curve is a straight line (see Fig. 14
(a1-a2)). For nonlinear system, the output amplitude first increases with
F0 when F0 is small, just following the linear input-output line; then,
instead of increasing with input, the output amplitude decreases quickly
and forms a local minimum. This minimum value is the reason for the
valley in Fig. 13(a, b). After the local minimum, the output amplitude
increases slowly or even remains constant when the input level further
increases. The whole process exhibits a behavior of output saturation.
Due to the output saturation, the input-transmission curve (Fig. 14(a3-
a4)) decreases quickly when the input level increases, thus warranting a
low transmission.
Furthermore, we calculate the output and transmission at another
X. Fang et al.
Fig. A5. Setups for the measurement of plate vibration and its sound radiation. Experiments are conducted in an anechoic room. (a, b) for the unbaffled condition
and (d, e) for the baffled condition. In (b, d), the center point of the plate is the excitation point E (0, 0). Vibration of the plate is measured at the left-center LC and
right-upper RU points. Their coordinates are: LC (− 400, 0), RU (400, 400).
Fig. A6. Spectra of the white-noise input force F0. Panel (b) shows the gener­
alized value F0(f)/F0av.
typical resonance, 324.5 Hz (see Fig. 15). Though there is no local
minimum for F0<30 N, both the vibration mobility and the radiated
sound pressure p1/F0 of the fundamental wave monotonically decrease
by 12.7 dB when increasing F0. This is also owing to the output satu­
ration. The decreasing speed becomes slower for larger input. Both the
decreasing rate and trend of vibration and sound are consistent with
experiments in Figs. 7 and A9.
Therefore, the output saturation of nonlinear resonance is the most
important mechanism for the ultralow, ultrabroad-band, and highly
efficient vibration and sound suppression, observed both numerically
and experimentally. Moreover, output saturation takes place without
considering harmonic generation or chaotic effect, but the harmonic
generation and chaotic effect appear simultaneously, as shown in Fig. 6.
Fig. A7. The ratio v3/v1 changing with F0. This figure is drawn corresponding to Fig. 7(a1-a3). (a) f0=88.75 Hz; (b) f0=155; (c) f0= 345 Hz.
14
International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 228 (2022) 107473
4.4. Energy pumping
As experimentally observed in Figs. 7 and A9, the NAM plate entails
efficient harmonic generation. Here we consider the typical third har­
monic. The index pav/p1 in Fig. 7(b1-b4) increases with the input
amplitude overall due to the chaotic responses. This is the so-called
energy pumping mechanism whose principle has been studied in Refs.
[50,54]. This mechanism can also be confirmed in the present NAM
plate. As shown in Fig. 15(c), the ratios between the third harmonic and
fundamental waves, v3/v1 and p3/p1, both increase with the input
amplitude until reaching a critical value. For the analyzed resonances,
v3/v1 reaches 0.7; p3/p1 reaches 0.3. This agrees with the experiment
results in Fig. 7(b2,b3) and Fig. A9. Moreover, p3/p1 in theory almost
remains constant for F0>13 N though p3 still decreases, which is also
consistent with the experimental observation on the baffled plate (see
the results for 130 and 350 Hz in Fig. A9).
4.5. Modulation of nonlinear resonance modes
Previous discussions on output saturation and energy pumping give
an overall description and explanation on wave suppression and har­
monic generation. It is also interesting to know what happens at
different positions of the NAM plate. We find that the changes in the
output or transmission correspond to the modulation of nonlinear
resonance modes. We show the mode in terms of 20log10[|w(x, y)|/F0]
dB, where the displacement field w(x, y) is in unit mm. A mode bears two
features: shape and amplitude. We still take f1=148 Hz and f1=324.5 Hz
as examples, and both the modes of fundamental wave and third
X. Fang et al.
Fig. A8. Experiments under baffled boundary condition. Five levels of sweep-
frequency signals 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1.0, 3.5 V, are input. (a, b) Generalized sound
pressure at sensors 1 and 2 (distances 1 m and 2 m respectively).
harmonic are analyzed, as shown in Figs. 14 and 15.
It is pertinent to distinguish two concepts: the linear modes at 3f1 and
the third-harmonic mode of a fundamental wave at f1. Comparing
Fig. 14(b2) with Fig. 14(d1-d3), and comparing Fig. 15(e1) with Fig. 15
(e3, e4), we find that the shape of the third harmonic mode is close to the
linear mode at 3f1 (although they are not exactly identical). As the sound
radiation depends on structural deformation characterized by vibration
modes, the third harmonic p3 features different spectrum with p1 in
Fig. 12(d) because the vibration modes at f1 and 3f1 are different.
Moreover, although the harmonic generation depends on the vibration
amplitude, the mode shape of the third harmonic almost remains un­
changed. The variable is its modal amplitude. In contrast, the mode of
the fundamental wave can be modulated by input amplitude, thus pro­
ducing three types of modulation.
(1) Modulation of mode amplitude
Fig. A9. Sound radiation of the baffled metamaterial plate under monochromatic input. Three columns correspond to the results for three frequencies, 130, 350, and
490 Hz, picked near the peaks shown in Fig. A8. The generalized radiation sound pressures at 1 m and 2 m are shown in the first row. In the second row, ratios p3/ p1
and pav/p1 are plotted on the left and right axes, respectively.
15
International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 228 (2022) 107473
At 324.5 Hz, as shown in Fig. 15(d1-d4), the mode shapes of the
fundamental wave under different amplitudes are identical, and are also
identical to the linear mode. However, the amplitude of the modal
response is significantly reduced—therefore, the sound and vibration
are also suppressed.
(2) Modulation of mode shape
A more interesting modulation is on the mode shape itself. We take
148 Hz as example. Its response exhibits the interesting valley value. As
shown in Fig. 14(b1, c1-c3), the nonlinear mode shape changes with the
forcing amplitude, and its shape can be completely different with the
corresponding linear mode. Modulation of the mode shape means the
NAM structure can avoid the “resonance” mode so that its amplitude can
be much smaller than the linear resonance. This is an important mech­
anism for efficient wave suppression.
This mechanism happens in a broad frequency band, such as the
valley at 141 Hz in Fig. 13(a, b). We can find more valleys from the
transmission curves in Figs. 5 and A8. As shown in Fig. 13(g, h), at the
valley, the shapes of linear and nonlinear modes are completely
different, and the amplitude of nonlinear mode is reduced by 20 dB.
Therefore, the modulation of mode shape is also the mechanism for the
appearance of the valley.
(3) Frequency shifting
We note that the frequency shifting stated here is the change of the
resonance frequency, rather than the bending of the resonance curves
shown in Fig. 13(e, f). As demonstrated before [33], the band structure
of the strongly nonlinear metamaterial depends on the forcing ampli­
tude. For the present NAM plate, the bridged coupling between three
local resonances can change the band structure because the frequencies
of local resonances depend on the amplitude. We loosely equate this
effect to its corresponding linear system with a tunable stiffness kc
(combined with Fig. 8). As shown in Fig. 16, increasing kc cannot only
change the resonance frequency of mode LR0, but also the frequencies of
the two flexural resonances of the rod. When kc becomes very large (i.e.,
fixing the magnet mr on the rod), frod1 and frod2 jump tofrod1
limit
and frod2
limit
,
X. Fang et al. International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 228 (2022) 107473

respectively. This leads to different band structure of the plate. For the
finite plate, this leads to different bandgaps and resonance frequencies
in passbands (see Fig. 16(c)). In the NAM plate, this frequency shifting
phenomenon happens by increasing the forcing amplitude, not only for
band structure [33], but also for the dense resonances in the passbands.
For example, as shown in Fig. 16(a), the peak frequency 323.5 Hz shifts
to 326 Hz when F0=10 N, and further to 319 Hz when F0=50 N. The
frequency shifting is also important for vibration and sound suppression
because the shifting, even tiny, can help the system avoid the resonance
state at the original frequency.
5. Discussions and conclusions
Nonlinear acoustic metamaterials (NAMs) can offer exotic features
which allow for ultra-low frequency, ultra-broadband and highly effi­
cient wave suppression. Despite the increasing attention paid to the
topic, properties and mechanisms relating to these features have not
been fully understood. Moreover, properties relating to the sound ra­
diation and harmonic generation of the NAM structures have not been
reported. Based on experimental and theoretical analyses, here we sys­
tematically investigate the vibration and sound radiation properties of a
typical NAM plate consisting of the coupled vibro-impact resonators.
NAM plates, under both baffled and unbaffled conditions, are experi­
mentally tested, demonstrating the significantly reduced vibration
transmission (by about 15 dB) and sound radiation in an ultralow and
ultrabroad frequency range (20–1800 Hz), as well as a rich body of in­
formation on wave dynamics and the associated physical phenomena.
For mechanism exploration, a nonlinear finite element model of the
NAM plate is established. Harmonic balance approach is adopted to
solve the resultant high-dimensional system with the consideration of
the third harmonic. Theoretical results show consistency with
experiments.
We find that the bridged coupling among the local resonances (three
instead of two resonances) is responsible for the observed broadband
suppression effects. This observation enlightens us to use multiple local
resonances and let them cover a broad band to broaden the wave sup­
pression effects. Moreover, the nonlinear collision-friction damping
induced by the vibro-impact oscillator also plays an important role in
broadening the wave suppression range and improving the reduction
efficiency, especially within the inert band. Therefore, the nonlinear
damping self-contained in the resonators can enhance the broadband
wave suppression with no need of introducing any artificial damping
elements into the system such as the conventionally used viscoelastic
materials/coating.
The mechanisms underpinning the observed wave suppression are
unveiled from different perspectives in terms of nonlinear resonances. In
addition to the metamaterial bandgaps, the output saturation of
nonlinear resonances is deemed to be the most important reason behind.
Moreover, we demonstrate that the NAM plate features highly efficient
(80%) high-order harmonic generation. The energy pumping effect
induced by high-order harmonics and chaotic responses can also
improve the wave reduction. The sound radiation properties of the
fundamental and third harmonics depend on the fundamental and linear
tri-frequency vibration modes, respectively. The detailed intrinsic pro­
cess along with the output saturation is the modulation of nonlinear
resonance modes. We discover three types of modulation: modulation of
mode amplitude, modulation of mode shape, and frequency shifting.
These mechanisms are not independent, instead, they are inter-related
and occur simultaneously. Our study shows the behaviors of NAM
plates in terms of vibration and sound radiation governed by these
physical mechanisms, and clarifies the ways influencing the overall
wave suppression process.
As a final remark, this study provides answers to several key ques­
tions of paramount importance in physics, mechanics and applications
of NAMs, thus offering new impetus to innovate NAM design for achieve
ultimate wave manipulations and vibration/noise suppression. The
present investigation is based on a particular yet typical NAM plate
configuration. Future work is expected so that the concept, mechanisms
and the analysis methods proposed in this paper can be extended to
other configurations or new wave dynamics in NAMs.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare the following financial interests/personal re­
lationships which may be considered as potential competing interests:
Xin Fang reports financial support provided by National Natural Science
Foundation of China. Jihong Wen, Dianlong Yu reports financial support
provided by National Natural Science Foundation of China. Li Cheng
reports financial support provided by Research Grant Council of the
Hong Kong SAR.
Acknowledgments
This paper is funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of
China (Projects no. 12002371, no. 11991032, and no. 11991034) and
the Hong Kong Scholars Program. Support from Research Grant Council
of the Hong Kong SAR (PolyU 152023/20E) is also acknowledged.

Appendix A. Nonlinearity characterization

As shown in Fig. A1, we experimentally measure the repulsive force F between a pair of magnets when changing the distance between the two
magnets, and Δ denotes the variation of the distance. The initial distance is Δ0=10.5 mm. In this process, we obtain the function F(Δ0+Δ). The
resultant repulsive force on the magnet 2 from magnets 1 and 3 in Fig. 1(b) is F(Δ)=F(Δ0-Δ)-F(Δ0+Δ). We use the function k1Δ+ k1nΔ3 to fit F(Δ), and
obtain k1=230 N/m and k1n=1.4 × 107 N/m3.
As shown in Fig. A2(a), the smooth nonlinear function P(ur ) = kc ur + kcn unr can be used to approximate the force in vibro-impact motion, and a
higher order n would present a better approximation. The nonlinear stiffness coefficient can be estimated by kcn≈αδ− n. Based on the experiments, we
determine that the stiffness constant is kcn=1 × 1014 N/m3 for the cubic nonlinearity, thus, kcn≈2 × 1023 N/m5 for the 5th nonlinear term. As shown in
Fig. A2(b), the results for n = 3 and n = 5 are basically the same (the details of these responses will be analyzed in Sections 3 and 4). This proves that a
modeling based on even high-order nonlinearity does not fundamentally change the general nonlinear process and mechanisms, but this will make the
calculation and simulation be more complicated. Therefore, we use the cubic term in this paper for generality and are convinced that the obtained
results are representative of the reality.

Appendix B. Modeling and solving algorithm

B.1. Elements in matrices

The matrices in Eq. (7) are detailed as follows:

16
X. Fang et al. International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 228 (2022) 107473

⎡ ⎤ ⎡ ⎤ ⎡ ⎤
me11 me12 me13 me14 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
⎢ me22 me23 me24 ⎥ ⎢0 ke22 ke23 0⎥ ⎢ 0 0 ⎥
mer = ⎢ ⎥, ⎢
ker = ⎣ ⎥, kec = ⎢ 0 0 ⎥
⎣ me33 me34 ⎦ 0 ke23 ke33 0⎦ ⎣0 0 0 0 ⎦
sym mr 0 0 0 kc 0 0 0 kcn

in which
ρs As l3s
me11 = + mJ l2J + mr l2r + JJ + Jr
3
∫ ls
1 ′ ′
me22 = ρs As G21 (x)dx + mJ G21 (lJ ) + mr G21 (lr ) + JJ [G 1 (lJ )]2 + Jr [G 1 (lr )]2
2 0
∫ ls
1 ′ ′
me33 = ρs As G22 (x)dx + mJ G22 (lJ ) + mr G22 (lr ) + JJ [G 2 (lJ )]2 + Jr [G 2 (lr )]2
2 0
∫ ls
1 ′ ′
me12 = ρs As G1 (x)xdx + mJ G1 (lJ )lJ + mr G1 (lr )lr + JJ G 1 (lJ ) + Jr G 1 (lr )
2 0
∫ ls
1 ′ ′
me13 = ρs As G2 (x)xdx + mJ G2 (lJ )lJ + mr G2 (lr )lr + JJ G 2 (lJ ) + Jr G 2 (lr )
2 0
∫ ls
1
me23 = ρs As G1 (x)G2 (x)dx + mJ G1 (lJ )G2 (lJ ) + mr G1 (lr )G2 (lr )
2 0
′ ′ ′ ′
+JJ G 1 (lJ )G 2 (lJ ) + Jr G 1 (lr )G 2 (lr )
me14 = mr lr , me24 = mr G1 (lr ), me34 = mr G2 (lr )
∫ ls ∫ ls ∫ ls
ke22 = Es Is [G1 ′′ (x)]2 dx, ke33 = Es Is [G2 ′′ (x)]2 dx, ke23 = Es Is G1 ′′ (x)G2 ′′ (x)dx
0 0 0

In Eq. (11)
3( 3 )
α1 = a + a1 a22 − a21 b1 + a22 b1 + 2a1 b21 − 2a1 a2 b2 + 2a1 b22
4 1
3( )
α2 = a21 a2 + a32 + 2a1 a2 b1 + 2a2 b21 − a21 b2 + a22 b2 + 2a2 b22
4
( )
3 1
α3 = − a31 + a1 a22 + 2a21 b1 + 2a22 b1 + b31 + b1 b22
4 3
( )
3 1
α4 = − a21 a2 + a32 + 2a21 b2 + 2a22 b2 + b21 b2 + b32
4 3

If the nonlinear term of the vibro-impact oscillator is cubic, i.e. n = 3, the vector βi = αi. One can deduce vectors for higher orders by reducing triangle
functions. For example, for n = 5,
( )
5( ) 5 5 3
β1 = a51 + 2a31 a22 + a1 a42 + − a41 b1 + 3a21 a22 b1 + a42 b1 + 6a31 b21 + 6a1 a22 b21 − 3a21 b31 + 3a22 b31 + 3a1 b41
8 8 2 2
( )
15 2 1 1 1
+ − 2a31 a2 b2 − a1 a32 b2 − a1 a2 b21 b2 + a31 b22 + a1 a22 b22 − a21 b1 b22 + a22 b1 b22 + 2a1 b21 b22 − 2a1 a2 b32 + a1 b42
8 3 2 2 2
( ) ( )
5( 4 ) 15 1 5 3 5
β2 = a1 a2 + 2a21 a32 + a52 + 2a31 a2 b + a1 a32 b1 + a21 a2 b21 + a31 b21 + a1 a2 b31 + a2 b41 + − a42 b2 − 6a21 a22 b2 + a42 b2
8 4 2 8 2 2
15 ( )
+ − a21 b22 b2 + a22 b21 b2 + 2a21 a2 b21 + 2a32 b22 + 2a1 a2 b1 b22 + 2a2 b21 b22 − a31 b22 + a22 b32 + a2 b42
8

B.2. The Bloch theorem for band structure

The periodic boundary conditions are determined by Bloch theorem as

φ(r + Rn ) = e− ik⋅Rn
φ(r) (23)

Here the wave vector k=(kx, ky)∈ [0,1]π/a. The dispersion curves are obtained by solving the eigen function
⃒ ⃒
⃒K − ω 2 M ⃒ = 0 (24)

where ω=2πf denotes the angle frequency; Mand K are mass and linear stiffness matrices of the unit cell, respectively.

17
X. Fang et al. International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 228 (2022) 107473

B.3. Solving algorithm for nonlinear equations

When using the continuation approach to solve Eq. (11), the initial value v0 of the (n + 1)th variable is the solution of nth variable, v0(sn+1)=v(sn).
Here sn denotes the variable at the nth step, which is either the frequency f or the amplitude F0 in the present case. Specifying v0=0 in the computation
is efficient owing to the possibility of conducting parallel computation.
The similar methods are adopted to solve the nonlinear damping problem in Eq. (21):

(1) When specifying v0=0 as the initial value of the vector q, we first find the solution of the linearized system with dceq=0, i.e., we obtain wri
(Linear)
⃒ ⃒
⃒ (Linear) ⃒
in the first step. Then, we specify dceq = ωdc ⃒wri ⃒ to find the solution of the nonlinear system. The solution in Figs. 9(b,c) and 10 for dc= 2 N
s2/m2 is solved with this approach. Although this approach may overestimate the nonlinear damping at resonance frequencies, it can be highly
efficient by adopting the parallel computation.
(2) A more accurate way is to use the continuation approach. In this case, we specify dceq (sn+1 ) = ωdc |wri (sn )| and v0(sn+1)=v(sn) in the iteration. In
the first step for n = 0, giving dceq=0 does not affect the solution in following steps because the continuation can correct the solution in every
step. Solutions in Figs. 11 and 12 are solved with this approach.

Appendix C. Additional numerical results

To clarity the reason for choosing the left center (LC) and right upper (RU) points in Fig. 1 to quantify the vibration of the plate, we numerically
analyze the linear vibration responses of the metamaterial plate. The average displacement of the 21 × 21 meshing points is calculated for reference.
As shown in Fig. A3, the vibration responses exemplified by LC and RU points are representative, which are fully consistent, in terms of dynamic
properties and variation trend, with the vibration response amplitude averaged over the entire plate. However, while the average vibration of the
whole plate vav can present the vibration in the Bragg bandgap clearer.
As well known, the concentrated mass m0 greatly affects the Bragg bandgap. To clarify the influence of Bragg bandgaps on the vibration of the
metamaterial plate, we numerically studied its dispersion diagram and the average vibration amplitude in three cases with m0=10 g, 20 g and 30 g. In
our experimental configuration shown in Fig. 1, m0=20 g. As shown in Fig. A4, the complete Bragg bandgap is absent for m0=10 g and 20 g, although it
is open in ΓX and MΓ directions (see Fig. 2(a)). Fig. A4(b, d, f) shows that the valley values of the average vibration amplitude in the ΓX Bragg bandgap
are lower than those in the neighboring passbands, suggesting that the Bragg bandgap in ΓX direction can also lead to vibration reduction to certain
extent, but the resonance peaks remain high. Increasing m0 to 30 g, a complete Bragg bandgap is formed, along with further reduction in the valley,
albeit the existence of resonances in the Bragg bandgap. Two reasons lead to this: (1) The Bragg bandgap itself is less capable of attenuating low-
frequency waves than the locally resonant bandgaps; (2) there are only 5 unit cells between the excitation point and the boundary of the finite
plate so the accumulated attenuation is low.

Appendix D. Experimental methods and results

D.1. Experimental methods

As well known, damping can efficiently reduce the vibration in high-frequency range. In this paper, we mainly focus on the low-frequency and
broadband wave suppression below 2000 Hz. Experimental setups used for measurement are shown in Fig. A5. The NAM plate is immersed in air and
driven by an electromagnetic shaker at the center point E of the plate. The vibration velocities at point E, the left-center (LC) and the right-upper (RU)
points perpendicular to the plate plane, vLC, vRU, vE, are synchronously measured by three laser vibrometers. As demonstrated in Ref. [50] and Ap­
pendix C (Fig. A3), the vibration at LC and RU points can show the vibration properties of the whole plate.
The corresponding sound radiation from the panel is measured under both the unbaffled and baffled conditions in an anechoic room with a lower
cut-off frequency of 100 Hz. A microphone is installed along the central axle of the plate, 2 m away from the plate. In the unbaffled condition (Fig. A5
(a,b)), the plate is free except for the excitation point E. In the baffled condition (Fig. A5(d,e)), the acoustically rigid baffle separates the acoustic media
at the two sides of the panel [57,58]. To achieve this, we embed/attach the NAM plate in the window of a much larger wall made of wood in the
anechoic room. The edges of the plate adhere to the wall though soft foams. The results for the baffled plate are shown in Appendix D. Three types of
excitation signals are adopted in different situations: (1) white-noise signal; (2) sweep-frequency signal; (3) monochromatic signal. The wave
reduction effect is shown in Fig. 5. Moreover, we note that the highest sound pressure is lower than 100 dB (see Fig. 6) that is not high enough to
generate the nonlinear acoustic effect of air (it generally requires ~140 dB). The nonlinear effects only come from the NAM plate.
White-noise and sweep-frequency signals of different levels are used, as shown in Fig. A6. The excitation signal fluctuates significantly in 0–800 Hz.
Though one can define the transmission as Ti=20log10(vi/vE), most peaks in such transmission curve would correspond to the valleys of vE instead of
the resonances. Therefore, directly observing such curve may introduce confusions to differentiate resonances with anti-resonances. Instead, here we
quantify the transmission by defining Ta=20log10(ai/aE,av). The generalized force F0(f)/F0av in Fig. A6(b) shows high consistence.
As illustrated in Fig. A7, examination on v3/v1 shows an interesting property in that v3/v1 peaks when vi/F0 drops in a valley, i.e., the highest
efficiency for the third-harmonic generation appears. This also suggests that the fundamental wave and high-order harmonics exhibit different be­
haviors. However, p3/p1 (instead of v3/v1 at local points) can reflect the properties of the third-harmonic generation by the whole plate more clearly.

D.2. Sound radiation of the baffled metamaterial plate

The experimental setups for measuring the sound radiation of the baffled metamaterial plate are shown in Fig. A5(d,e). Firstly, we measure the
sound radiation under broadband sweep-frequency inputs. Five levels of sweep-frequency signals, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1.0, 3.5 V, are input to the shaker,
exciting the panel at its center. Similar as the unbaffled case, the lowest and highest levels present the linear and strongly nonlinear states, respec­
tively. In this experiment, two acoustic sensors are put on the axle of the plate with distances 1 and 2 m, respectively. As shown in Fig. A8(b, c), the
significant reduction of sound radiation near 800 Hz still owing to the directional Bragg bandgap. From linear to strongly nonlinear states, the peaks of

18
X. Fang et al. International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 228 (2022) 107473

generalized sound pressure can be reduced by 10–20 dB, especially in 380–400 Hz and 900–1700 Hz. In the baffled experiment, the peaks in 200–600
Hz are not as obvious as the unfabled plate shown in Fig. 5(c) mainly due to the damping effect induced by the soft foams on the window.
Secondly, similar with Fig. 7, sound radiation of this baffled NAM plate under monochromatic signals is also measured, as shown in Fig. A9. We
pick up three representative frequencies, 130, 350, and 490 Hz, to show the suppression and harmonic generation properties. The properties are
consistent with the unbaffled plate in Fig. 7. A new phenomenon is the variation trends of p3/p1. For the baffled plate, p3/p1 can also reach 60–80%, but
it might have two more peaks and may remain at a high level when the incident force is higher than the critical value.

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