Mechanical metamaterials & metastructures for vibration suppression: From physical mechanisms to quantitative performance maps

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Mechanical metamaterials offer new opportunities for vibration suppression through architecture-driven control of dynamic response, overcoming limitations of conventional isolation techniques. This review presents a mechanism-based framework for the design and analysis of vibration-suppressing metastructures, classifying existing approaches into four physical attenuation mechanisms –geometry-induced attenuation, local resonance, dynamic stiffness tuning, and energy dissipation–, together with hybridization as a cross-cutting design strategy. For each category, the governing physical principles are linked to representative structural realizations, with emphasis on design strategies and manufacturable architectures. Wave-based bandgap concepts and transmissibility-based metrics are integrated, enabling consistent evaluation of finite, experimentally realizable systems. A curated database of reported designs is formed and analyzed using Ashby-type performance maps to compare attenuation frequency ranges, bandwidth, stiffness, and structural efficiency across mechanisms. Particular attention is given to design-for-manufacture considerations, including additive manufacturing-enabled geometries, multi-material integration, and scalability. Key challenges—such as broadband low-frequency attenuation, tunability, and load-bearing integration—are analyzed alongside emerging solutions based on nonlinear stiffness, multi-resonator systems, and hybrid material–structural concepts. The work provides a unifying framework for the design and physical realization of vibration-suppressing, advanced materials and structures, identifying applicability limits and trade-offs across attenuation mechanisms and open benchmarking needs.