Multistable locally resonant elastic metamaterial with tunable anisotropy

Abstract Metamaterials with multistability have attracted much attention due to their extraordinary physical properties. In this paper, we report a novel multistable strategy that is reversible under external forces, based on the fact that a variational reversible locally resonant elastic metamaterial (LREM) with four configurations is proposed. Through a combination of theoretical analysis and numerical simulations, this newly designed metamaterial is proven to exhibit different bandgap ranges and vibration attenuation properties in each configuration. Especially, there is tunable anisotropy shown in these configurations, which enables the bandgaps in two directions to be separated or overlapped. A model with a bandgap shifting ratio (BSR) of 100% and an overlap ratio of 25% is set to validate the multistable strategy feasibility. The proposed design strategy demonstrates significant potentials for applications in versatile scenarios.