Experimental Validation for Mechanically Tunable Defect Bands of a Reconfigurable Phononic Crystal with Permanent Magnets

Phononic crystals (PnCs) have garnered significant attention due to their unique ability to control elastic waves in unconventional ways. One area of research focuses on utilizing defects within PnCs. Defects create new pass bands within band gaps, leading to concentrated wave energy within the defects. However, defect-mode-enabled wave localization is effective only at specific frequencies, limiting its usefulness when the frequencies of incident waves vary. Existing methods to mechanically tune defect bands involve changing the geometries of unit cells or defects or attaching elastic foundations, which necessitates the detachment and reattachment of certain structures depending on the engineering situation. Considering these challenges, this study introduces a novel approach that utilizes the reconfigurable PnC design, incorporating permanent magnets and ferromagnetic materials. The case study involves a one-dimensional PnC consisting of a long metal beam with rectangular block-shaped permanent magnets periodically arranged and attached to the beam by magnetic forces. A defect is created by shifting a subset of these block-shaped permanent magnets in parallel. The extent of this parallel movement alters the vibrating characteristics of the defect, facilitating the mechanical control of the defect bands in the defective PnC. The effectiveness of this approach is experimentally validated.