A prototype progressive metamaterial with unconventional properties employs electrical indicators to manage the route and depth of vitality waves traversing a stable. This progressive metamaterial, characterised by odd mass density, presents a divergence from Newton’s second regulation, as pressure and acceleration don’t go in the identical route. Huang envisions wide-ranging functions from army and business makes use of, equivalent to controlling radar waves or managing vibration from air turbulence in plane, to civil makes use of like monitoring the health of constructions like bridges and pipelines.
University of Missouri researchers designed a prototype of a small, light-weight energetic ‘metamaterial’ that may management the route and depth of vitality waves.
Professor Guoliang Huang of the University of Missouri has developed a prototype metamaterial that may management the route and depth of vitality waves utilizing electrical indicators. The progressive materials has potential functions within the army and business sectors, and will also be used to watch the structural health of bridges and pipelines.
For greater than 10 years, Guoliang Huang, the Huber and Helen Croft Chair in Engineering on the University of Missouri, has been investigating the unconventional properties of “metamaterials” — a man-made materials that reveals properties not generally present in nature as outlined by Newton’s legal guidelines of movement — in his long-term pursuit of designing an excellent metamaterial.
Huang’s objective is to assist management the “elastic” vitality waves touring by bigger constructions — equivalent to an plane — with out mild and small “metastructures.”
The prototype metamaterial makes use of electrical indicators transported by these black wires to manage each the route and depth of vitality waves passing by a stable materials. Credit: University of Missouri
“For many years I’ve been working on the challenge of how to use mathematical mechanics to solve engineering problems,” Huang stated. “Conventional methods have many limitations, including size and weight. So, I’ve been exploring how we can find an alternative solution using a lightweight material that’s small but can still control the low-frequency vibration coming from a larger structure, like an aircraft.”
Guoliang Huang. Credit: University of Missouri
Now, Huang’s one step nearer to his objective. In a brand new research revealed within the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) on May 18, Huang and colleagues have developed a prototype metamaterial that makes use of electrical indicators to manage each the route and depth of vitality waves passing by a stable materials.
Potential functions of his progressive design embrace army and business makes use of, equivalent to controlling radar waves by directing them to scan a selected space for objects or managing vibration created by air turbulence from an plane in flight.
“This metamaterial has odd mass density,” Huang stated. “So, the force and acceleration are not going in the same direction, thereby providing us with an unconventional way to customize the design of an object’s structural dynamics, or properties to challenge Newton’s second law.”
This is the primary bodily realization of odd mass density, Huang stated.
“For instance, this metamaterial could be beneficial to monitor the health of civil structures such as bridges and pipelines as active transducers by helping identify any potential damage that might be hard to see with the human eye.”
Reference: “Active metamaterials for realizing odd mass density” by Qian Wu, Xianchen Xu, Honghua Qian, Shaoyun Wang, Rui Zhu, Zheng Yan, Hongbin Ma, Yangyang Chen and Guoliang Huang, 18 May 2023, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2209829120
Other MU contributors embrace Qian Wu, Xianchen Xu, Honghua Qian, Shaoyun Wang, Zheng Yan and Hongbin Ma. Grants from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the Army Research Office funded the analysis.
