In the field of waves and vibrations, Metamaterials (MMs) are artificial structures that allow the manipulation of electromagnetic, acoustic or elastic waves in exotic ways, giving rise to unexpected effects (e.g, negative effective refractive index, cloaking, focusing or filtering). These exceptional properties, not encountered in conventional materials, derive largely from the geometric structure rather than from material composition. This means that they can be realized and replicated in any material (or at any size scale), maintaining the same or very similar effects, apart from frequency/wavelength shifts. Although their characteristics can lead to practical advantages in many applications involving elastic and acoustic wave manipulation (e.g., advanced sensing, vibration damping in structures, acoustic noise abatement, etc.), the understanding of their properties constitutes an open and widely unexplored research field in many and diverse disciplines involved. Thus, despite their promise, MMs remain scarcely utilized in advanced technological fields, mainly due to the lack of a systematic approach in designing optimized, lightweight, practically-oriented structures.
The project MetaMAPP (MetaMaterials APPlications) aimed to contribute to bridge the gap between theory and applications in MM research, by devising effective MM-based solutions to address practical issues encountered in the aeronautical industry. MetaMAPP adopted a research-oriented approach to:
• provide optimized design criteria for MM structures, using numerical algorithms and semi-empirical approaches;
• assessing the possibility to implement tunability of MM properties in response to an external optical stimulus;
• exploit the optimized MM structures for possible applications in the fields of Non Destructive Testing (NDT) and acoustic noise abatement;
• design, manufacture and prototype two devices: a metasensor together with a measurement protocol for NDT of composite aircraft components and an acoustic insulation panel to be applied in the nacelles and the fuselage of aircrafts;
As a long-term goal, the project aimed to bring the innovative potential of MMs to the market, fostering research and development of MMs-based products.
Principal Academic Tutor:
Federico Bosia (Politecnico di Torino)
External Tutor:
Luca D’Alessandro – Phononic Vibes