Design and Fabrication of Bioinspired Hierarchical Dissipative Elastic Metamaterials

The authors propose a strategy to integrate h00exi00exe00exr00exa00exr00exc00exh00exy into the design of elastic metamaterials and produce lightweight solutions for multiscale frequency attenuation, with applications ranging from nondestructive testing to seismic protection. This study shows the benefits of hierarchical structure in porous, viscoelastic single-phase materials, demonstrating efficient multifrequency attenuation---including low frequencies---while reducing structural weight. The results can be applied over a wide range of length scales, providing engineering solutions to vibration-damping problems.