Computational study of seismic wave propagation through metamaterial foundation

Abstract The present work is about metamaterial-based foundation design for attenuating seismic wave propagation. Metamaterials are artificially designed structures engineered for novel properties. These artificially designed structures can exhibit properties, which can be contra-intuitive and sometimes not available in nature. These metamaterials have frequency regions (called as bandgaps) for which significant attenuation of – P-waves and S-waves takes place. In this work, bandgaps have been computed using the finite element method and compared with the literature. Further, harmonic excitation is provided, and the frequency response function through the metamaterial region has been evaluated for various layers of the structure. The results show high S- and P-wave attenuation in the bandgap region, which can be engineered by designing the unit cell.