Transmissibility, boundary-guided waves, and representative unit cell choice in finite-sized metamaterials

The implications of selecting different unit cells are often overlooked in both direct studies of microstructured materials and their homogenized equivalents. Investigating the effects of unit cell selection is crucial not only for understanding boundary phenomena but also for identifying which finite-sized metamaterial performs best for a given purpose (e.g., achieving zero or minimal transmissibility in the band-gap range). This study examines how the choice of a representative unit cell in periodic metamaterials influences boundary effects and, consequently, the transmissibility of finite-size samples, while providing a strategy based on eigenfrequency calculations that enables a priori optimization.